


The Red Shirt Always Dies

by aquariuslover



Series: Expectations! [14]
Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ, Infinite (Band), SHINee, Star Trek, Super Junior, 소녀시대 | Girls' Generation | SNSD
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-24 13:07:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 34,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14955266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aquariuslover/pseuds/aquariuslover
Summary: Lives are put at risk when Captain Leeteuk makes a reckless decision. The away team struggles to survive a perilous journey filled with dangers. New heroes emerge while old heroes are lost.





	1. Captain Leeteuk

**Author's Note:**

> This story is inspired by Star Trek and the Kpop community.
> 
> This story was written many years ago before the tragic loss of Kim Jonghyun. It didn't feel right deleting his character, so Ensign Jonghyun remains.

Ensign Junsu entered the mess hall and immediately wished he had stayed in his quarters. In the middle of the mess hall the tables had been pushed together to make one large table. At the center of the table was Captain Leeteuk, surrounded by crew members who adored him.  
  
Many of those crew members were some of Junsu’s closest friends, including lieutenants Sungmin and Donghae and his very best and oldest friend, Ensign Eunhyuk. His best friend caught sight of him and motioned toward the empty chair he had saved for him. Junsu waved back but made no acknowledgement that he was going to take the seat. He turned around and hurried toward the food replicators.  
  
Junsu inwardly groaned as he noticed Commander Yoochun at the replicators smirking at him knowingly. “Commander.”  
  
“Ensign.”  
  
“Sir, how are you…how are you doing?” Junsu asked awkwardly.  
  
Yoochun shook his head and walked away from the replicators without answering the ensign’s question.  
  
Junsu watched as Commander Yoochun moved toward the exit and before he had to time to second guess his own actions he gathered up his food and rushed after the commander.  
  
Once out of the mess hall Junsu followed after Commander Yoochun. The urge to call out to the other man was strong. That smirk had been the first he had received from the commander since weeks earlier when he had stirred the commander’s ire by rejecting him.  
  
“Ensign Junsu, are you tagging along behind me?” Yoochun asked without slowing down or turning around to acknowledge the younger man.  
  
“Yes…no…yes,” Ensign Junsu stammered.  
  
Commander Yoochun slowed his pace and allowed Junsu to catch up with him. “Do you also lack the desire or the stomach to eat with King Leeteuk and his happy court of fools?”  
  
“Yes!” Junsu gasped because Yoochun understood.  
  
“So you are not just a cute ass after all?”  
  
Junsu brightened considerably because he had felt sure the commander had forgotten all about his cute ass and him. “No.”  
  
“Your friends are drinking up his attentions aren’t they?”  
  
“They like the new captain very much,” Junsu answered as he matched Yoochun’s pace, not bothering to hide his disapproval. “It makes me want to gag.”  
  
“I am surprised you don’t also love his lavish compliments. I thought having your head petted, belly rubbed, and ego stroked was right up your alley.”  
  
“You don’t know me as well as you think,” Junsu said defensively. “I can’t stand—”  
  
Commander Yoochun reached out with his hand and motioned for Ensign Junsu to hush. “Be careful, Ensign. Captain Leeteuk is a very insecure man…that is why he dishes out all the false praise. He can’t earn his subordinates respect the old fashioned way a captain should, so he builds up their egos instead.”  
  
“But you…you are insulting him.”  
  
“I am the Chief Engineer of a Star Ship and you are a lowly ensign.”  
  
“I am a bridge officer and the helmsman of this ship,” Junsu reminded the Commander.  
  
“And ten people could take your place…” Commander Yoochun paused after seeing the offended look on Junsu’s face. “To be completely fair, you are the most skilled pilot on this ship, but it isn’t like we are going to be flying the ship through a meteor field anytime soon.”  
  
Junsu opened his mouth and shut it.  
  
“I can be critical of the captain…because the engines run this ship and I run the engines.”  
  
“Oh…”  
  
“Exactly,” Commander Yoochun said with a grin. “Yunho could manage the engines if he needed to, but Leeteuk is useless. He wasn’t the first in his class at anything…he doesn’t excel at anything other than being extremely ordinary.”  
  
“But he was a commander.”  
  
“Just like your lowly friends like to be praised, so do weak superior officers,” Yoochun reminded Ensign Junsu. “He did well enough at the academy, but there are many men on this ship that did a whole lot better.”  
  
“I miss Yunho as—”  
  
“Shut up,” Yoochun warned, interrupting Junsu. “Unless you want to find yourself red shirted on an away mission, I’d be quiet. He probably monitors everything said about him on this ship.”  
  
Junsu gulped because it was true. The ship recorded everything that was said, but the crew’s cabins were supposed to be surveillance free. He needed to talk about how frustrated he was with the new leadership. “You want to eat dinner with me in my quarters?”  
  
Yoochun arched his eyebrows suggestively.  
  
“I need to talk to somebody,” Junsu urgently explained. He needed to talk to somebody who didn’t think Captain Leeteuk was the greatest captain in the history of the universe.  
  
“No, I don’t want to eat with you…or talk with you, Ensign. We are not friends. If you want to talk with someone you will have to talk to your ass-kissing friends or find new friends. I am no longer interested in you or your games.”  
  
Junsu took an involuntary step back, startled by the commander’s words as he watched Yoochun walk away from him without another word or a glance back.  
  
  
*************  
  
  
“He hates me.”  
  
“He loves you.”  
  
Jaejoong, who was walking down the corridor with Yunho, insisted. “He hates me.”  
  
“He loves you.”  
  
“Then why has he made me look like a cow for so freaking long?”  
  
Yunho with the endless patience of one who both loved the moody Joong completely and absolutely, maintained, “He loves you. Stop calling yourself a cow. How many times do I have to tell you that you look nothing like a cow?”  
  
“Liar.”  
  
“What is it with the comparisons to cows lately?” Yunho asked curiously. The night before when he had tried to initiate some intimate time, Jaejoong had refused saying he couldn’t have sex when he looked like a cow. Jaejoong’s complaining had increased substantially in the last couple of days.  
  
“Ryeowook showed me what a cow looked like, and now I expect to start mooing at anytime.”  
  
Yunho peered down at his slightly shorter mate. “Why did he show you pictures of cows?”  
  
“He was feeling nostalgic for that little primitive colony he grew up on.”  
  
“Homesick,” Yunho said with a sigh. “I understand the feeling. I often wonder about life on Earth. Do you get homesick?”  
  
“No! And no way in hell am I going back to Joong looking like this.”  
  
“Joong,” Yunho repeated the mysterious planet’s name. “Could you go back to Joong if you wanted to?”  
  
“Of course I could go back to Joong, but the hell if I will. I can just hear all my siblings telling me snidely with their verbal voices that I’m glowing…the bitches.”  
  
Yunho cringed involuntarily; he had made the mistake of telling Jaejoong he was glowing more than once. “Where is Joong?”  
  
Jaejoong gave Yunho a look that screamed ‘idiot’ and informed his lover, “I could tell you…but then I would have to kill you. And since killing you would mean killing me and Changmin, I’ll pass.”  
  
_“Exxxcuse me?”_  
  
“Really Yunho, it is one of the greatest secrets in the universe.”  
  
“Sorry, I thought since we were bonded for life and all that I might be privy to the location.”  
  
“No.”  
  
“I guess I won’t be visiting the in-laws anytime soon.”  
  
Jaejoong cleared his throat. “Did we get married and it slipped my mind?”  
  
“Don’t start.”  
  
“Yes, I remember now…we are living in sin with each other while I am pregnant with your bastard child.”  
  
“Jae…”  
  
“Captain Leeteuk could marry—”  
  
“Jaejoong, not now!”  
  
The Joong sighed and looked up at his lover; even though his telepathic and empathic abilities had been gone for a month he couldn’t miss Yunho’s discomfort. Jaejoong didn’t need his telepathy to know how much it hurt Yunho to give up command of the ship to Leeteuk. “Sorry.”  
  
“Nothing to be sorry for,” Yunho told him as he reached up and rubbed the back of his neck.  
  
“I am just grumpy because Changmin thinks leaving me this huge forever is  _so_  funny.”  
  
Yunho looked at Jaejoong curiously. “Why are you so eager to give birth all of a sudden?”  
  
“Have you seen me?”  
  
“Yes, and you are beautiful…but for the longest time you kept insisting he would slow down, and you acted like you wanted it to happen.”  
  
“I did.”  
  
“So he did as you wanted.”  
  
“Yes, two weeks ago…when I was already full term with him. I have been very patient…but now he needs to be born already!”  
  
“He will be…when he is ready.”  
  
“You mean when he is finished making me suffer.”  
  
“He’s a baby, there is no evil plan involved.”  
  
“The grown version of Changmin wasn’t that fond of me.”  
  
“He grew to love you.”  
  
“But maybe this is payback for me lying to him for so long.”  
  
“How could fetus Changmin know any of that?”  
  
Jaejoong shrugged. “It just feels…like something he would do.”  
  
“No, he wouldn’t.”  
  
“He was really smart!”  
  
“A genius many times over.”  
  
“With a devious mind…perhaps…”  
  
Yunho reached out, took Jaejoong’s hand and squeezed it, reassuring his mate. “He’s not being devious. He just doesn’t want to leave you…it’s sweet.”  
  
“It’s not sweet!” Jaejoong barked.  
  
“It is.”  
  
“No, it isn’t!”  
  
“Just focus on your bond with him…then you will be happy,” Yunho told his mate. “Just bask in the bond you share with him.”  
  
“So I will forget how fat I am?”  
  
“You are not fat, you are pregnant.”  
  
“I am fat!” Jaejoong yelled, yanking his hand away from Yunho. “I am so fat…” Jaejoong paused and sniffed the air. “Do you smell something?”  
  
Yunho, who was very accustomed to Jaejoong’s rapid change in moods, answered, “I can’t smell anything, but we are right outside the galley.”  
  
Jaejoong looked at the doors that lead to the galley. “Somebody is cooking something.”  
  
“That is what people do in the galley.”  
  
“I am starving,” Jaejoong declared and barged right in.  
  
“Jaejoong,” Yunho chastised as he followed after his mate. “You can’t just interrupt people!”  
  
“It’s not people! It’s Ryeowook and Kyuhyun,” Jaejoong informed his mate as he sat down at the table with the couple that had been having a private dinner together and grabbed a piece of chicken.  
  
Yunho entered the galley and looked apologetically at the couple. “I’m so sorry.”  
  
Ryeowook, who was just shaking his head at the Joong, told Yunho, “Its okay.”  
  
“Sit down and help yourself to some dinner,” Kyuhyun offered.  
  
Yunho sat down and told the couple, “We actually just ate.”  
  
Jaejoong glared accusingly at Ryeowook and with a mouthful of chicken he spat, “You are eating fried chicken without me. You know I love your replicated fried chicken!”  
  
“I saved you some.”  
  
“Some,” Jaejoong scoffed. “I want it all.”  
  
Kyuhyun, who had never seen Jaejoong eat hardly anything before, asked, “I thought you…rarely ate.”  
  
“I eat,” Jaejoong protested and grabbed another piece of chicken and tore into it as if he were starving to death.  
  
Yunho elaborated for Kyuhyun. “For the past couple of weeks…he’s had a ravenous appetite…remind you of anybody?”  
  
Kyuhyun broke out into a huge smile. “Changmin is exerting his will…awesome.”  
  
Jaejoong put down his chicken informed the others. “Laugh now, but once he is born…I’m not feeding him anything.”  
  
“We have already had this talk, and you have to feed him,” Ryeowook informed the Joong.  
  
Yunho rolled his eyes. “Why would you even say that? Of course, you will feed him.”  
  
“Ummm…no, I’m not.”  
  
Ryeowook and Yunho shared a long suffering look and informed the Joong, “We will make you feed him.”  
  
Jaejoong snorted. “I’d like to see you two make me do anything. Once Changmin is born and I have reverted to old form…my wondrous telepathic and empathic powers will rule supreme once again.”  
  
An appalled Yunho commanded, “You are not going to starve our son!”  
  
Jaejoong gave Yunho a particularly annoyed look and snapped, “He won’t have to eat. The bond will nourish him.”  
  
“We know Joongs don’t have to eat,” Ryeowook told Jaejoong.  
  
“They don’t?” Kyuhyun asked.  
  
“No, they don’t starve like we do…their self-healing ability keeps them from starving.”  
  
Yunho looked at his mate and maintained, “But he can eat…he will want to eat. He’s half human. He likes to eat!”  
  
Jaejoong grabbed another chicken leg and informed his mate, “Too bad. If I feed him I will have to clean him.”  
  
Yunho gave Jaejoong a blank stare and the Chos broke out in laughter. Yunho found his tongue, but Jaejoong was saved from his response when Yunho and Kyuhyun’s insignias beeped and Captain Leeteuk’s voice announced, “All senior officers to the main briefing room.”  
  
Jaejoong brightened and announced, “Good, more chicken for me.”  
  
Yunho just shook his head at his mate and got up from the table with Kyuhyun. “Try not to miss me too much.”  
  
“Oh, I will try my best,” Jaejoong assured him as he ripped into another piece of chicken.  
  
Kyuhyun chuckled, bent down and kissed Ryeowook on the cheek, “Next time.”  
  
Ryeowook cast his eyes up and nodded his head.  
  
Kyuhyun and Yunho left the galley. Ryeowook watched for several minutes as Jaejoong demolished the rest of the fried chicken before asking, “So how is Yunho?”  
  
“Miserable,” Jaejoong answered, putting down the chicken bone he had been gnawing on. “He can’t relax. He patrols the ship even more than before.”  
  
“It must be very hard for him.”  
  
“It is,” Jaejoong agreed. “I wish he could be like you.”  
  
“Like me?”  
  
“You gave up your control of sickbay easily.”  
  
“That’s because Heechul is truly my superior in every sense of the word,” Ryeowook explained. “He’s a genius.”  
  
Jaejoong peered at Ryeowook. “Are you saying your precious Captain Leeteuk isn’t? I thought you were his great defender? I thought you licked his feet clean at night.”  
  
“You are gross,” the doctor told the Joong. “I like Captain Leeteuk a whole lot, but some people aren’t…he is a great leader…but”  
  
“But…”  
  
“Some people are born to lead others…and I’ve always known Yunho was born to be a leader of men.”  
  
“So Leeteuk wasn’t?”  
  
“Yes…No…I don’t know what I am saying.”  
  
Jaejoong looked down at his distended stomach and demanded, “Can you be born already! These humans are driving me crazy. They are confusing as hell!”  
  
“Hey!”  
  
“It’s true! You don’t even know your own mind.”  
  
“I know my own mind.”  
  
Jaejoong grunted.  
  
“I like Captain Leeteuk. He has always been extremely kind to me…but I also like Yunho and I know how much Yunho misses being the captain. You know Kyuhyun and I served with Leeteuk long before Yunho joined this ship.”  
  
“You knew Yunho in the academy, though. Yunho kept people from bullying you, and this is how you repay him…by being loyal to Freaky Face.”  
  
Ryeowook’s mouth dropped open.  
  
“Just because Leeteuk sprouts off nice words to you…you forget everything Yunho has done for you.”  
  
“That isn’t true!” Ryeowook denied. “As Starfleet officers, we have to be loyal to the captain. It is how the ship runs. It’s not a democracy. Loyalty is an absolute!”  
  
“Your hubby prefers Yunho,” Jaejoong reminded Ryeowook.  
  
“Jaejoong, it isn’t a popularity contest. I have told you this.”  
  
“He still likes Yunho best…unlike you.”  
  
Ryeowook exhaled a deep breath. “I like them both…the same.”  
  
Jaejoong’s eyes darkened.  
  
“Don’t look at me like that!” Ryeowook exclaimed. He was very grateful that Jaejoong’s telepathic powers and his mental ability to kill hadn’t returned. “I didn’t say I didn’t like Yunho!”  
  
Jaejoong scooted his chair back and then stopped. The frustrated Joong snapped, “If I could storm out of here I would…but it would be more of a waddle so I am just going to sit here and bitch at you.”  
  
Ryeowook pressed his lips together trying not to laugh.  
  
The amused look on the doctor’s face only irritated the grumpy Joong more. “I hope Kyuhyun never finds you attractive again.”  
  
“Jaejoong!”  
  
“You sexless little troll,” Jaejoong spat. “No, let me rephrase that…you are a disloyal, sexless little troll!”  
  
Ryeowook quickly got up and walked over to the other side of the table and sat down by Jaejoong in an attempt to appease him. “I like Yunho better…there.”  
  
Jaejoong eyed the other man suspiciously. “Are you lying?”  
  
“No, I am not lying, so calm down. You are probably giving Changmin a headache.”  
  
“You won’t always be able to lie to me. I won’t always be pregnant…and then everything will go back to the way it should be.”  
  
“Jaejoong…”  
  
“Old Freaky Face shouldn’t be the captain of a ship just because he’s older than Yunho. It’s stupid.”  
  
“He isn’t captain because he’s older. He outranks Yunho.”  
  
“Barely! If they were the same age Yunho would easily outrank him.”  
  
“I know, and if we didn’t get stuck here I am sure Yunho would outrank him by now…but we did get stuck in this galaxy.”  
  
Jaejoong leaned against the back of his chair and complained, “It’s insane; a month ago he wouldn’t even leave his clothes on and now he is the captain of this ship.”  
  
“He was sick!”  
  
“In the head.”  
  
“He is better now…him, Dr. Kim, and Commander Ji-Hoon are all better now,” Ryeowook reminded the Joong.  
  
“So? The three of them are better but two others also got better…only to lose their mind in less than a day.”  
  
“I can’t explain why they are better…I just know they are better.”  
  
“Then why are the other two back in stasis?”  
  
“I don’t know…it’s likely their minds were too damaged.”  
  
“Damaged…you primitives don’t know if a brain is functional or not. When my telepathy returns we will find out who is damaged and who isn’t.”  
  
“Jaejoong…what exactly are you hinting at?”  
  
The Joong smiled at him. “True power will be back where it belongs.”  
  
“Yunho would never approve. Yunho knows he has to respect the chain of command…and so do you.”  
  
“I don’t have to do anything.”  
  
Ryeowook shook his head. “Yunho won’t allow it.”  
  
Jaejoong smirked. “Yunho doesn’t have to know about it.”  
  
  
******************  
  
  
Kyuhyun kept his face completely still as he watched the power struggle going on between Captain Leeteuk and Commander Jung.  
  
“Yunho,” Captain Leeteuk told the commander patiently. “I have already heard your objections and discarded them. I do not need to hear them again.”  
  
“Sir,” Yunho responded with a perfectly controlled voice. “I was merely going to offer a suggestion.”  
  
“You are not going. I have told you repeatedly that as long as your life is linked to that of your mate and your unborn child I do not feel comfortable putting your life or theirs at risk.”  
  
“I understand, Captain,” Yunho replied calmly.  
  
“And Commander Kyuhyun isn’t going to lead the away mission either,” Leeteuk told Yunho. “Lieutenant Yesung will get his chance to shine. Leading the away team will be a great opportunity for him.”  
  
“I have already stated my objection to Lieutenant Yesung leading his first mission…a rescue mission—”  
  
Captain Leeteuk interrupted, “Yes, and I am sure you will file the appropriate objections through the official channels.”  
  
“I will,” Yunho assured him. “I will immediately be filing my objections to your choice of away team members and your refusal to send them by shuttle.”  
  
Kyuhyun watched as Leeteuk and Yunho stared each other down, neither one blinking. They were sitting at the opposite ends of the table. The animosity between the two men had only grown since Leeteuk had used his superior rank to gain control of the ship. Yunho had followed Star Fleet precedent and relinquished control of the Expectations only to regret it more with each passing day.  
  
Kyuhyun looked around at the other officers sitting around the table. One of Leeteuk’s first acts of being captain had been to officially remove any lieutenants from being considering senior officer officers. Only commanders were considered senior officers, now.  
  
Kyuhyun sat on Yunho’s left and Commander Yoochun sat at Yunho’s right. Dr. Kim sat at Leeteuk’s left and Commander Ji-Hoon sat at his right. Commander Ji-Hoon was now listed as third in command of the ship. Kyuhyun had been transferred to the Communications department that had been acting without a chief. Kyuhyun was now forth in line of command.  
  
“Perhaps we should hear Yunho’s suggestion,” Heechul advised carefully.  
  
Leeteuk blinked as if he was startled by the doctor’s statement. “Yes, let us hear your suggestion…as long as Lieutenant Yesung remains in charge of the away mission.”  
  
Yunho, who still hadn’t blinked, smiled. “Captain, I would suggest adding Ensign SungGyu to the away team.”  
  
The captain turned his focus to Yoochun. “Isn’t he yours?”  
  
“Yes,” Yoochun quickly stated, but his unflinching loyalty to Yunho had him adding, “he belongs to my department, but I will loan him out.”  
  
“Wasn’t he just a mere cadet?” Commander Ji-Hoon questioned, unable to hide his amusement at Yunho’s suggestion.  
  
“Yes,” Leeteuk answered, narrowing his eyes at Yunho. “But he has proven to be efficient on away missions. He took control on Kanzi from Ensign Junsu who was his superior at the time with great ease.”  
  
Commander Yoochun snorted at the ridiculous thought of Ensign Junsu being in command of anything.  
  
“Do you think Lieutenant Yesung will give up command so easily?” Yunho asked. “I was leading the mission on Kanzi, not Ensign Junsu. Ensign SungGyu took control after I was injured and presumed lost. Ensign Junsu has never had any desire to command. Ensign Junsu shows no aptitude for command…surely you are not comparing Lieutenant Yesung to Ensign Junsu.”  
  
Captain Leeteuk folded his arms in front of him. Kyuhyun knew Yunho had the captain where he wanted him.  
  
“Of course I wouldn’t,” Leeteuk told Yunho. “Only those with aptitude  _or_ a desire to command should be given command opportunities.”  
  
Yunho nodded his head and informed the captain, “And this is where we differ on our opinions, I believe desire alone is not a reason to give someone power over the lives of others. I believe natural capability must be shown.”  
  
Captain Leeteuk smiled and leaned back in his chair. “Lieutenant Yesung has passed all the necessary command classes. He might not have been the academy’s star pupil…but not everybody can follow in your exemplary example, Commander.”  
  
Yunho smiled back at him. “No, they can not.”  
  
Leeteuk stood up and declared, “Ensign SungGyu will join the away mission and this briefing is concluded.”  
  
After Leeteuk had exited the room with Commander Ji-Hoon at his side, Yunho got up and Kyuhyun and Yoochun followed after him.  
  
“Why don’t you just whip out your cocks next time,” Yoochun teased. “The one with the biggest cock gets to be captain.”  
  
Kyuhyun rolled his eyes and walked away. Yunho paused at the doorway to give Yoochun a disapproving look.  
  
“This is a sure fire way for you to win command back.”  
  
“Yoochun.”  
  
“What? It’s totally a legit way of determining who should be the big man.”  
  
“Yoochun…”  
  
“I say he is 5 centimeters at the maximum.”  
  
“Yoochun…”  
  
“Interesting way of determining the captaincy there,” Dr. Kim, who had been eavesdropping on the two of them, stated as he stepped up between them.  
  
“I thought so,” Yoochun told the doctor. “I know Nurse Heechul would have approved.”  
  
“Nurse Heechul no longer exists,” Heechul reminded the engineer.  
  
“And that is a crying shame,” Yoochun told the doctor as Yunho walked away. “How I miss that lovely lady.”  
  
Heechul ignored Yoochun and hurried after Yunho who had already made it across the bridge to the lift. As the lift opened and Yunho stepped inside, Heechul rushed forward to join him.  
  
“I can’t help but feel like you are ignoring me,” Heechul told Yunho. “Is that any way to treat an old friend?”  
  
Yunho gazed steadily at the doctor and answered, “Doctor, do you require something of me?”  
  
“Yunho...”  
  
“Doctor.”  
  
“Yunho, talk to me. We used to be great friends. This conversation is just between the two of us.”  
  
“Is it?”  
  
“Yes! I know you might be peeved at me…for siding with Captain Leeteuk so frequently in the past month, but he is newly in charge and he needs the Chief Medical Officer’s support.”  
  
“You have done a commendable job of supporting him. You have repeatedly sided with him and by doing so you have showed little regard to the crew’s safety or wellbeing.”  
  
“Yunho, you know that isn’t true.”  
  
“On Xaleena the only reason the entire away mission didn’t end up dead is because the Rebellion heard about their predicament and stepped in to save them. I fear we may not be so lucky this time.”  
  
“Your objections to that away mission were firmly stated.”  
  
“And they were ignored.”  
  
“They were not ignored,” Heechul exclaimed. “He simply did not agree with them.”  
  
“I am not going to discuss this with you,” Yunho stated firmly. “I have filed the proper grievances and when we return to Federation space they will be addressed…and we will return someday.”  
  
“You are so hostile…we are friends. Try to remember we have been friends for years. I have a role to play…just like you do.”  
  
Yunho narrowed his gaze at Heechul. “For almost two years I did everything humanly possible to keep this ship running…after unimaginable damages and losses. I have valued every life on this ship as if it were my own. I can not approve of such recklessness when it is constantly putting lives at risk. You used to feel the same! What happened to you? You used to value the lives of others!”  
  
“I value life!”  
  
“Not like you used to.”  
  
Heechul took a step back. “What are you saying?”  
  
The door to the lift opened and Yunho bluntly told Heechul, “You have changed and not for the better.”  
  
“Maybe it is you who has changed,” Heechul told Yunho as the commander exited the lift. “Although my body has walked the corridors of this ship…the Heechul you used to know has been asleep. You are the one that has been awake…awake, changing, and growing.”  
  
Yunho turned around to look at Heechul. “Maybe I have changed…I had to, but the core of my being is unchanged.”  
  
“I supported you in the briefing today…you may not have noticed, but I did,” Heechul reminded Yunho. “Now that Leeteuk’s captaincy is more concrete…I will support you more.”  
  
“I don’t want you to blindly support me…I want  _you_  to be  _you_! I want the amazing doctor…man, who does what he thinks is right no matter what. Remember him? He never let duty, opinion, or consequences get in the way of what he thought was right!”  
  
Heechul did not step out of the lift, but he vowed, “I promise he still exists.”  
  
Yunho closed his eyes and told his old friend, “I have somewhere I need to be.”  
  
“Then don’t let me stop you,” Heechul told him as he stepped farther back into the lift.  
  
Yunho watched as the doors to the lift shut.  
  
  
**********************  
  
  
Junsu, who had been resting in his quarters alone, looked up when he heard the chirp alerting him someone was at the door. “Enter.”  
  
“Hello!” a very excited Eunhyuk told him as he entered his friend’s quarters.  
  
“Hmmph,” Junsu muttered as he rolled over on his back.  
  
“What kind of greeting is that?”  
  
“An honest one.”  
  
“Did you hear the good news?”  
  
“Hear what?” Junsu asked as he watched his best friend start to pace his quarters.  
  
“I am going on an away mission.”  
  
“Really?” Junsu asked, his interest increasing as he sat up.  
  
“Yeah, you remember the distress call we answered?”  
  
“I wasn’t on the bridge at the time,” Junsu reminded his friend. “And neither were you.”  
  
“That doesn’t matter! I am…going to be on the away team.”  
  
Junsu peered up at this friend, who upon closer inspection looked both excited and worried. “Who is leading it…?”  
  
Eunhyuk stopped pacing and visibly slumped. “Lieutenant Yesung.”  
  
“Oh, no.”  
  
“I know,” Eunhyuk groaned as he sat down by his friend on the bed. “I am glad to be picked to go on an away team, but I’m scared shitless. I am going to die. Aren’t I?”  
  
“No…you won’t.”  
  
“Yes, I will. You weren’t at the briefing…you have no idea what I am going to be facing.”  
  
Junsu wrapped a comforting arm around his friend. “Tell me about the mission.”  
  
“The people on that planet say there is some kind of shield that is malfunctioning and they are afraid they are going to be trapped inside it with a bunch of…”  
  
“A bunch of what?”  
  
“They call them the Jex, but honestly, after hearing their description they sound like evil, flying spiders to me.”  
  
“Flying spiders?”  
  
“Yeah, they are about the size of pigeons back on Earth and they…and they paralyze people…and then they suck their blood.”  
  
“What is it with blood suckers in this galaxy?”  
  
“I know! And the shield they are talking about sounds just like the one on the vampire planet,” Eunhyuk explained.  
  
“We barely got off that planet.”  
  
“Don’t I know it?”  
  
Junsu tightened his grip on his friend. “Is Lieutenant SooYoung going with you? Please tell me SooYoung is going with you…she’s smart.”  
  
“No…no SooYoung…no Yunho…no Heechul…no Kyuhyun—not that I think Kyuhyun is all that great of a commander, but most importantly no Changmin.”  
  
Junsu paled and offered, “I will pray for you.”  
  
Eunhyuk sputtered, “I need more than prayers…you think Ryeowook would tell them I am sick and can’t go?”  
  
Junsu shook his head.  
  
“Yeah…that was a long shot; plus, with my luck Dr. Heechul would find out and rat me out to the captain.”  
  
“Tell me more about the mission,” Junsu told his friend in an attempt to distract him. “Does the shield keep the killer spiders out?”  
  
“No, it does the opposite from what I hear. They said in the briefing that the shield covers a large portion of the continent. The Jex hatch in that part of the continent…but they don’t stay there. They fly away to other parts of the world and breed.”  
  
“So if the shield is up the Jex can’t fly away?”  
  
“Exactly, and apparently the flying spiders get really mean if they can’t get to their breeding grounds. The natives of the planet report that there are many accounts of the Jex biting people who disturb their breeding habits. They bite people to paralyze them and then a flock of them land on the paralyzed person and suck their blood out. Don’t they sound lovely?”  
  
“No,” Junsu answered frowning. “Why would you erect a shield where they hatch…why would you live anywhere near them?”  
  
“I don’t know,” Eunhyuk answered, honestly. “Apparently, as long as they aren’t disturbed they prefer eating other animals. When they come back to lay their eggs they never bother the people...unless if people disrupt them.”  
  
“It just sounds really stupid. I wouldn’t live near them.”  
  
“To be fair, the people didn’t make the shield; they are not exactly high on the evolutionary ladder. I don’t think the shield has worked for hundreds of years…maybe it was put there for another reason.”  
  
“So it just started working?”  
  
“Yeah, supposedly it started working a few weeks ago…and now the people are afraid the shield will be up when the Jex hatch.”  
  
“The mission sounds really dangerous.”  
  
“It is.”  
  
“How are you guys supposed to get the shield down?”  
  
“Find the power source and destroy it,” Eunhyuk answered. “Commander Leeteuk…has faith in us, but Commander Jung apparently was ranting that it was a stupid plan to send us.”  
  
“Yunho was not ranting….he isn’t the ranting type. Who told you that?”  
  
“Okay, he wasn’t ranting, but you can tell he isn’t exactly happy with the away team the captain picked out.”  
  
“I wouldn’t blame Yunho if he was ranting. Why would the captain give Yesung command? Has he lost his mind again?”  
  
“Captain Leeteuk believes in giving everybody a fair chance,” Eunhyuk said, suddenly defensive of his commanding officer. “He doesn’t just cater to his favorites.”  
  
Junsu jerked his arm away from Eunhyuk. “Yunho didn’t cater to his favorites.”  
  
“The same people always led the away missions,” Eunhyuk reminded him.  
  
“Yeah…he usually led them! If he was leading this away mission you wouldn’t be on the verge of wetting yourself.”  
  
Eunhyuk got up from the bed. “You just don’t like Captain Leeteuk.”  
  
“I just think Yunho is a better captain,” Junsu stated. “A whole  _lot_ better.”  
  
“Well, I don’t,” Eunhyuk declared as he headed toward the door. “You need to accept the fact that Yunho isn’t the captain anymore.”  
  
“I have accepted it…I just don’t like it.”  
  
The doors to Junsu’s quarter’s whooshed open and Eunhyuk paused. “I don’t want to fight with you about this.”  
  
Junsu got off the bed. “Yeah, especially since it might be the last time we ever see each other.”  
  
“Hey!”  
  
“I am just saying…Yesung will be leading your away mission…and we both know that isn’t a good thing, but apparently Captain Leeteuk thinks it is a great idea! And we thought he was crazy when he wouldn’t wear clothes.”  
  
“That’s low.”  
  
“Well,  _your_ precious captain thinks it is for the best…who are we to question his godly judgment?”  
  
Eunhyuk’s hands trembled. “You are being so immature.”  
  
Junsu walked up to Eunhyuk and said in his defense, “You started it.”  
  
“I did not.”  
  
“You talked shit about Yunho.”  
  
Eunhyuk reddened. “I didn’t! I like Yunho…I just like Captain Leeteuk, too.”  
  
“You said Yunho catered to his favorites—which is a huge joke. Considering  _your_ Leeteuk has his favorites surrounding him all the time. The mess hall has turned into his royal court of admirers.”  
  
“Is that why…why you won’t eat with me anymore?”  
  
Junsu nodded his head.  
  
Eunhyuk rolled his eyes. “That’s so petty.”  
  
“Maybe it is…but it is how I feel.”  
  
“I am sorry I ever voiced my concerns to you…” Eunhyuk paused turning red with anger. “I should have had faith in Captain Leeteuk’s choices. I am sorry I ever doubted him.”  
  
“Then why don’t you leave and go beg him for his forgiveness?”  
  
“I will,” Eunhyuk told Junsu as he stepped out of the room and hurried off.  
  
Junsu stepped out into the corridor and watched as Eunhyuk stormed off. He couldn’t resist from yelling out, “Try not to get killed!”  
  
  
*********************  
  
  
“Let’s hope this mission goes a little better than the last one we were on together,” Ensign Kangin told Ensign SungGyu as they walked toward the transporter room.  
  
“It couldn’t get much worse.”  
  
“Don’t jinx us kid. Don’t jinx us. We are about to be led into a spidery hell. I fucking hate spiders.”  
  
SungGyu grinned at the older ensign. “Sorry.”  
  
“What do you find so funny?”  
  
“That you hate spiders.”  
  
“Most people do.”  
  
SungGyu continued to grin. “They are harmless.”  
  
Kangin wrapped an arm around the younger ensign and warned, “There you go jinxing us again.”  
  
“I meant normal spiders…you know, spiders from earth.”  
  
“Ensigns!”  
  
Ensign SungGyu and Kangin turned around to find Commander Yunho hurrying toward them, looking unusually anxious.  
  
“Yunho, what’s wrong?” Kangin asked, concerned for his old friend.  
  
“Nothing is wrong,” Yunho told them as he approached the two ensigns. “I just wanted to wish you two a safe journey.”  
  
Kangin patted his pants pocket. “If I could sneak you along with us, you know I would.”  
  
“I wish I could go,” Yunho told his old friend.  
  
“I know you do. You are a regular mother hen, but in all honesty I wish you were coming along, too,” Kangin told Yunho earnestly.  
  
Yunho turned his attention to the younger ensign standing beside his old friend. “Ensign SungGyu, I want you to know I fought to get you on this mission.”  
  
SungGyu did not bother to hide his surprise.  
  
Kangin bumped shoulders with the young ensign, telling him, “Volunteering you for this mission…I guess those rumors of him liking you are all lies.”  
  
SungGyu smiled weakly at Yunho. He knew Kangin was teasing, but this mission wasn’t exactly one he would have volunteered for.  
  
Yunho reached out and placed both of his hands on SungGyu’s shoulders and told him forcefully, “I think very highly of you, don’t believe otherwise. Some people are born to command others…and I believe you to be one of those rare few. A true commander has a sense of responsibility they can’t ever shake. Nobody excels at the academy like you did without true talent…not even extreme favoritism could have given you such high marks.”  
  
“Do I need to leave you two alone for this love fest?” Kangin teased.  
  
“No,” Yunho answered, still looking the startled younger ensign in the eyes. “The human race has evolved greatly but we haven’t wiped out jealousy. There are still those who combat their own insecurities by lashing out at others they are envious of.”  
  
“Not everybody is jealous of others,” Kangin interrupted Yunho to point out. “I have never been jealous of you…not even at the academy when you were breaking record after record.”  
  
“I know this,” Yunho told the older ensign. “But I want SungGyu to understand why I was so careful with advancing him. Why I made him work every department on this ship. A true leader…can not ask others to do what they are not willing to do themselves. It is true respect can be given without being earned, but lasting respect and loyalty must be earned.”  
  
Kangin pressed his lips together and kept quiet, feeling the unspoken accusation against Captain Leeteuk, who was also his friend.  
  
“I will not forget, Sir,” Ensign SungGyu pledged to Yunho.  
  
“I want you to promise me that you will use your sound judgment and your natural ability to lead and listen to your gut…no matter what. I know Lieutenant Yesung is in charge of the mission, but I want you to  _always_  feel responsible for the lives of your fellow crew members and for the lives of the people on the planet. A true leader leads all the time…not just when the weight of the responsibly falls on him. Do you understand what I am saying?”  
  
“Yes, Sir.”  
  
Yunho dropped his arms away from the SungGyu and told him, “If I can’t be on the mission…I am glad you will be.”  
  
SungGyu eyes widened. “Thank you, Sir. Your confidence in me…I hope it is not misplaced.”  
  
“It isn’t,” Yunho assured him. “Now, you are dismissed.”  
  
SungGyu nodded his head, and then quickly headed for the transporter room, leaving Yunho and Kangin alone together in the corridor.  
  
“Yunho, do you think that perhaps you are putting too much on that kid’s shoulders?” Kangin asked his friend, concerned.  
  
“Yes,” Yunho answered truthfully. “But I don’t have a choice. You all are about to beam down to a planet that has an unstable shield and if it goes back up it is highly unlikely we will be able to beam you back aboard. We are not even sure if the insignias, tricorders, or phasers will work. The shield has gone up twice since we have been in orbit.”  
  
“But it has also gone immediately back down.”  
  
Yunho turned to face his friend. “And for your sake I hope it doesn’t stay up.”  
  
“What would you do differently if you were in command?”  
  
“I am not in command, so I will not bother you with ‘what ifs’.”  
  
Kangin reached out and squeezed Yunho’s arm. “I know this is hell for you. I don’t know what to say though…I love you both. You both are my friends.”  
  
“I know this, and I would never ask you to choose between us.”  
  
“And neither would he.”  
  
“I can’t help but be concerned for your’s and the other’s safety.”  
  
“You shouldn’t worry so much. Concentrate on baby Changmin. Soon Changmin will be filling this ship up with his loud screams,” Kangin told his friend. “This is a happy time for you; let Leeteuk worry about us.”  
  
Yunho sighed. “When you all are returned to the ship safely…then I will stop worrying.”  
  
“You promise?”  
  
Yunho gave his old friend a sheepish look. “I promise to be slightly less worried.”  
  
“Only slightly?”  
  
Yunho pulled Kangin into a tight embrace startling him. “Be careful, old friend.”  
  
“Yunho the hugger is back?” Kangin said, hugging Yunho back. “You used to be such a hugger. It used to freak Yoochun out at the academy.”  
  
Yunho squeezed Kangin tighter and told him, “I don’t hug you guys enough.”  
  
Kangin broke from the hug and kept grinning. “Yunho, you are a good friend…and a wonderful commander. Don’t you ever forget it!”  
  
Yunho sighed, hating that his friend was going on such a mission. “I will try not to…I don’t feel like a good friend right now…or a good commander.”  
  
“This isn’t your call.”  
  
“Just be careful.”  
  
“I promise. I guess you will be seeing us all off?”  
  
“Of course,” Yunho told Kangin as he started walking toward the transporter room. “Just because I am no longer the captain doesn’t mean all my old habits have to die.”  
  
“No,” Kangin agreed, walking beside his friend.  
  
“Be safe, Kangin…keep the others safe,” Yunho said, unable to shake his bad feeling.  
  
“I will do my best.”  
  
  
*****************  
  
  
SooYoung’s breathing was only slightly altered, while Siwon was bent over holding on to his knees and panting loudly.  
  
“Out of shape, Ambassador?”  
  
“Lieutenant, I have asked you repeatedly to call me Siwon.”  
  
“I am aware of that, Ambassador,” SooYoung replied, looking down at the winded man.  
  
Siwon straightened up and looked her in the eye. “Yet, you have not given me permission to call you by your given name.”  
  
“I know this, also.”  
  
Siwon shook his head at the beautiful woman he considered quite challenging. “Are you less stressed at least?”  
  
SooYoung waved her racquet at him. “A little, but my  _break_  from the bridge can not end quickly enough.”  
  
“Not much longer.”  
  
“Too long…I can’t help but be concerned. Minho is my younger brother, and even though he is a grown man…I can never stop wanting to protect him.”  
  
Siwon gave her sympathetic smile. “I remember how desperately you wanted to get back to him when we were stranded on the planet.”  
  
“Sometimes I forget about the time we spent on the planet together…how different things were back then.”  
  
“I should have asked permission to call you by your given name back then.”  
  
She laughed. “You should have, but you were too proper back then. Sulli and I were often comforted by your perfect, princely manners.”  
  
“This pleases me.”  
  
“It’s strange how it was almost peaceful there before Hangeng took Sulli and me.”  
  
“Not for Dr. Cho.”  
  
“No, his heart was breaking with the need to be with his husband.”  
  
Siwon nodded his head. “Only to have it completely break when he returned.”  
  
SooYoung gave Siwon a curious look but refrained from asking. “It’s like we have almost forgotten our time spent together stranded on the planet…the friendships we formed.”  
  
“I am trying my best to reestablish them, so they are not lost.”  
  
“Thank you…I almost miss it.”  
  
“At times, I miss those days, too.”  
  
She gave him a doubtful look. “Truly?”  
  
“Yes, but I don’t miss the giant bears that wanted so desperately to eat us.”  
  
“Me either…and I missed my brother. I am tired of missing my loved ones, Ambassador.”  
  
“I completely understand. Hopefully, they will find the shield’s power source before it goes back up and your brother will soon be returned to you.”  
  
SooYoung’s quickly become aggravated and complained, “Why we are not canvassing the planet with shuttles escapes my logic. I don’t understand why we would limit our search to one away team; an away team without a shuttle. It is completely illogical. Almost as if it the mission is purposely being doomed to failure.”  
  
“Did you perhaps voice these concerns to the captain?”  
  
SooYoung glanced down at the racquet in her hand, attempting to control her emotions. “I did…repeatedly.”  
  
“And then perhaps you were asked to take a break?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
Siwon pondered her words. “Is dealing with Captain Leeteuk much different than dealing with Commander Yunho?”  
  
SooYoung looked up, met his gaze and nodded her head.  
  
“Perhaps, you require lessons in diplomacy.”  
  
“Are you offering to be my teacher?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
SooYoung dropped her racquet and ordered, “Arch.”  
  
The illusion of a racquetball room vanished from the holodeck and the exit appeared. “I might consider your offer, Ambassador.”  
  
“Lieutenant, I am always eager to provide you with any assistance I can,” Siwon told her as they exited the holodeck suite.  
  
“What assistance do you require, Lieutenant SooYoung?” Lieutenant Sungmin asked. He had been waiting outside of the suite, leaning up against the wall and waiting for their game of racquetball to end.  
  
SooYoung quickly answered, “With my racquetball skills. I am terribly deficient when it comes to this sport.”  
  
“Your skills are far from lacking, but I will be happy to assist you,” Siwon answered smoothly, sensing SooYoung did not want to share her real concerns with Lieutenant Sungmin.  
  
“I will be allowed back in my science labs shortly; I shall go change so I can get back to work,” SooYoung told them.  
  
“I know this will please you greatly,” Siwon told her.  
  
“It will,” SooYoung confirmed as she gracefully took her leave. “Good day, you two.”  
  
Sungmin watched as the beautiful lieutenant walked away. “You both are wearing matching white uniforms.”  
  
“We didn’t color coordinate if that is what you are asking.”  
  
“It wasn’t. I know the holodeck provides the clothing. I just couldn’t help but notice how beautiful you both are.”  
  
“Do you wish me to thank you for your compliment?”  
  
Sungmin sighed and shook his head. “No; I would have liked a…reassuring comment regarding my own beauty.”  
  
“Sungmin, you are a very beautiful man, surely you do not require validation of this fact.”  
  
“Perhaps, I should have said you and SooYoung make a beautiful couple?”  
  
“Do you think we are a couple?”  
  
“No,” Sungmin answered, looking back at Siwon.  
  
“And you are correct…we are not. She will not even address me by my first name.”  
  
“I can understand why,” Sungmin stated. “Being a beautiful woman on this ship is quite difficult if memory serves.”  
  
“Hopefully, not all the time you spent as a woman was unpleasant.”  
  
Sungmin inhaled a sharp breath remembering the first time they had made love. “No, not at all.”  
  
Siwon gave him a small smile. “Why are you so concerned regarding Lieutenant SooYoung?”  
  
“I heard the captain had forbidden her from entering her labs or being on the bridge until 1400hrs.”  
  
“Yes, she questioned his judgment…it was her punishment.”  
  
Sungmin tensed. “I highly doubt that was the reason.”  
  
Siwon arched one eyebrow. “We just arrived at a planet, whose people are asking for our assistance with a mysterious malfunctioning shield that could put thousands of lives at risk. One would think it would not be the proper time to put your best science officer on a time out.”  
  
“Are  _you_ questioning his judgment, now?”  
  
“I was simply pointing out a fact.”  
  
“I am so sick of people constantly comparing him to Yunho.”  
  
“I did not mention Commander Jung.”  
  
“Leeteuk is the captain now…he does things differently than Yunho. Maybe he isn’t as open to people questioning his judgment, but he is the captain—he doesn’t have to be.”  
  
Siwon looked down at the shorter man and pointed out, “You are very defensive in regards to him.”  
  
Sungmin exhaled unable to hide his annoyance. “I know…you have only told me this a hundred times.”  
  
“More like six,” Siwon told Sungmin, correcting him. “Your loyalty is admirable…but to question  _why_  is what humanity does best. We question. We seek out truths.”  
  
“But to openly question his judgment is verging on insubordination!”  
  
“Perhaps if more people had questioned his judgment on Xaleena your life would not have been at risk.”  
  
Sungmin reddened, his anger growing. “Let’s not talk about that.”  
  
“Yes, of course that would not be a topic you wished to discuss,” Siwon said carefully, attempting to remain calm.  
  
Sungmin tried to force his anger under control. “I served a long time with Captain Leeteuk…I have told you this. He has always showed great faith in me.”  
  
“Yes, you have told me this.”  
  
“I don’t want you to side against him.”  
  
“I was not aware there were sides.”  
  
“He can’t help but feel insecure…I feel sorry for him.”  
  
Siwon opened his mouth and then closed it.  
  
Sungmin reached out and took Siwon’s hand. “I don’t want to fight with you…I miss you.”  
  
“You see me everyday.”  
  
“That isn’t what I mean…I miss being with you. I miss us.”  
  
Siwon withdrew his hand from Sungmin’s gasp. “I don’t think that would be wise.”  
  
“It would be…we agreed to keep it casual.”  
  
“Yes, only after you ended our relationship, resumed our relationship, and then you finally settled on keeping it casual.”  
  
“Siwon, I want you.”  
  
Siwon looked down into Sungmin’s eyes and remained firm. “You will only want me until your insecurities sway you once again to deem yourself unworthy of me…and then you will not want me any longer.”  
  
Sungmin pushed Siwon against the wall and pressed his body up close to the other man. “No, even when I am my most insecure…I still want you. I just start thinking too much. Why can’t you enjoy me while I am feeling confidant?”  
  
“No, I don’t think so,” Siwon stated, pushing the other man away.  
  
“Why not?”  
  
“Because I think we are at a point where our friendship could be in real danger…and I don’t want to lose our friendship.”  
  
“It isn’t.”  
  
“I also have a responsibility towards you.”  
  
“No, you don’t. I’ve told you this repeatedly.”  
  
“You can not release me from this obligation. It is the custom of my people.”  
  
“Forget about your customs. Can’t you just focus on us...being with me?”  
  
“No, your insecurities are not to be trifled with.”  
  
“Are you sure that is it?” Sungmin demanded. “Are you sure it has nothing to do with your racquetball partner?”  
  
“Ah,” Siwon exclaimed. “And there they come rushing back.”  
  
  
  
***********************  
  
  
Yunho walked through his quarters looking for Jaejoong. “Where are you?”  
  
“The bedroom.”  
  
“The bedroom,” Yunho repeated. Yunho knew he desperately needed a distraction and he couldn’t think of a better distraction than making love to Jaejoong.  
  
Yunho entered the bedroom to find a completely naked Jaejoong sitting on the bed. “Did you call me away from duty for a booty call?”  
  
“A what?”  
  
“Sexy times.”  
  
“I did.”  
  
“I am not really in the mood, but—”  
  
“Screw that!” Jaejoong interrupted not giving Yunho time to finish his sentence. “Is this a marriage thing? If it is I am vetoing the whole idea of marriage. I swear we are not going to end up like the Chos…when Ryeowook doesn’t want to have sex, Kyuhyun does, when Kyuhyun doesn’t want to have sex, Ryeowook does, and now neither of them want to have sex. We are bonded and we are going to have sex…sex when I want it. Do you hear me?”  
  
“Jaejoong…”  
  
“Don’t  _Jaejoong_  me.”  
  
“If you would have let me complete my sentence, I was going to tell you that when it comes to you…it’s very easy to get back in the mood.”  
  
“Oh…”  
  
“Although, I am surprised by your sudden turnabout,” Yunho said as he started to pull off his uniform. “I thought you didn’t want to have sex when you felt like a cow—not that I think you are a cow…I’m using your  _own_  words. Words that are not true and words I could not disagree with more…because you are nothing like a cow. You are the hottest pregnant person in the history of pregnant people in the entire universe!”  
  
“Oh, I am not going to be the cow…I am going to be the bull.”  
  
Yunho stopped removing his uniform. “What?”  
  
Jaejoong crawled towards the end of the bed where Yunho was standing. “I am going to penetrate you. It’s so awkward having sex with this big stomach. My dick still works so we will use it.”  
  
Yunho quickly put his uniform back on. “Are you…  
  
“It’s still going to be awkward, no matter how we do it. I think you should just bend over the bed. I can stand up that way,” Jaejoong said with his face full of excitement. “We have never done it this way before…it should be exciting.”  
  
Yunho took a step back. “I...I…”  
  
“Yunho! Man up!” Jaejoong demanded. “I having your child, you can at least satisfy me. I know the thought terrifies you but get over it. We won’t be able to do this once my damn empathy returns. Strip!”  
  
Yunho just stared at his mate, his jaw gaping open in horror.  
  
“I want this! I need this!”  
  
“Jaejoong, I know…I know…I should…it’s just—”  
  
Yunho insignia went off. The voice of Captain Leeteuk ordered, “All senior officers to the bridge.”  
  
“Bye!” Yunho exclaimed and darted from the room.


	2. God of Snow

The away team had been on the planet Pixxel for six hours; in that time the shield had gone up a total of four times. Three of those times the shield had been maintained for less than ten minutes before the sky turned a golden hue signaling its collapse. The forth time the shield had gone up…it had stayed up.  
  
The away team had come to a fork in the road.  
  
One path led to a mountain top where there was an ancient structure of unknown origin. The people native to the planet called it the Snow Fortress. They believed it belonged to the ancient God of Snow. The natives of the planet had explained to the team that their ancestors had once worshiped the God of Snow, but they had turned their backs on him after the great blizzard that had killed thousands. They had begun to worship the God of Blood instead and this had greatly angered the Snow God. In retaliation he had placed a strong curse upon the fortress, locking away all its hidden treasures. The people informed them that any who attempted to enter the fortress never returned.  
  
The other path led down the mountain to a village where the people of Pixxel had originally found the beacon they had used to call for help. The people of Pixxel were a primitive people; their level of development was similar to the Bronze Age on Earth. The technology of the shield that covered most of their continent and the beacon were far beyond their limited science.  
  
Lieutenant Yesung, who was leading the away mission, insisted on the path to the village. He reasoned that if the beacon had been found there then it was the most likely place to find the power source for the shield. Also, he stressed it would be warmer and much safer than traveling up the mountain.  
  
Ensign SungGyu disagreed, strongly.  
  
“Ensign, your concerns have been noted, now do your duty and let us proceed toward the village,” Lieutenant Yesung ordered in a chilly voice as he brushed away snow from his uniform.  
  
“Sir, might I suggest we split the away team up,” Ensign SungGyu offered. “We can then go both routes and increase our chances of finding the power source.”  
  
“No, I will not split the team up.”  
  
“Sir, the shield is back in place. We can not contact the ship,” SungGyu reminded the lieutenant. “We need to optimize our chances for success.”  
  
“It might go back down any minute. It has been going up and down for weeks,” Yesung pointed out.  
  
“It has never been up for this long,” Ensign Minho added carefully. The young science officer knew the lieutenant was at the end of his patience.  
  
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Yesung responded.  
  
“The people in the last village told us that the time for the Jex to hatch is quickly approaching. Once they hatch, the Jex will fly out of their caves and when they find the shield up they will devour any living beings in their sight,” Ensign SungGyu said firmly. “There will be no escape.”  
  
“Wrong,” Lieutenant Yesung declared, waving his phaser. “We have these.”  
  
Ensign SungGyu exhaled slowly and reminded the lieutenant, “But we are here to  _help_ the people of this planet…we can not protect everyone with our phasers.”  
  
“I know this…” Lieutenant Yesung paused to glare at the annoying ensign, while clenching his fist as he slowly holstered his phaser.  
  
“I think it would be a smart move to split up the team…best way to cover the most ground,” Ensign Kangin said encouragingly. Kangin considered Yesung a blustering fool and why Leeteuk had insisted on him leading the mission was beyond Kangin’s comprehension. Kangin had enjoyed watching Ensign SungGyu ruffle the lieutenant’s feathers.  
  
“If I split up the team…then you will be the one going up the mountain,  _alone_ ,” Lieutenant Yesung snapped at SungGyu.  
  
“Yes, Sir,” SungGyu agreed, taking a step away from the group. “I will gladly go up the mountain alone as long as  _someone_ goes up the mountain.”  
  
Doctor Nam, who had been quiet the entire time while SungGyu tried to talk sense into Lieutenant Yesung, stepped up to stand by SungGyu’s side, letting them all know…Ensign SungGyu would not be going up the mountain alone.  
  
“I would also like to take the mountain path,” Minho quickly proposed, unable to hide his eagerness to go with SungGyu.  
  
“I want to go up the mountain also,” Ensign Jonghyun said following his friend Ensign Minho’s lead.  
  
Kangin offered, “I will go with them, too.”  
  
“No,” Lieutenant Yesung ordered. “Ensign Kangin, you are the head of security on this mission…you are staying with me. Ensign Minho you are the only science officer we have. I will need you when I find the device powering the shield.” Lieutenant Yesung smiled at the Ensign Jonghyun and told him, “But you are more than welcome to go with Ensign SungGyu.”  
  
“Cool,” Jonghyun said taking a step toward Ensign SungGyu, looking relieved.  
  
Yesung smiled at Ensign SungGyu and told him, “And that is your team.”  
  
“I am going with him,” Doctor Nam told the lieutenant, while still flanking Ensign SungGyu’s right side.  
  
“You are the only doctor we have,” Yesung pointed out. “You are coming with me.”  
  
WooHyun reminded the lieutenant, “I am a volunteer…I’d hate to have to resign.”  
  
“You…you can’t do that.”  
  
WooHyun grinned at Yesung. “Try me.”  
  
“Then go with him…it isn’t like you are a real Star Fleet doctor,” Yesung snapped.  
  
“Nope, not a real  _Star Fleet_ doctor,” WooHyun confirmed, still grinning at Yesung. “You won’t miss me at all.”  
  
“Then it is settled,” SungGyu said quickly before the situation deteriorated more. “Doctor Nam, Ensign Jonghyun and I will proceed up the mountain and the rest of you will go down to the village to investigate the power source.”  
  
“Yes,” Lieutenant Yesung agreed as he looked at the crew members that were on his team. He still had eight people with him, not including himself. He begrudgingly admitted to himself the division of the teams wouldn’t look good to most superior officers. He was sure Captain Leeteuk would understand why the teams were split as they were but he could almost feel Commander Jung’s judgmental gaze on him from orbit.  
  
Lieutenant Yesung’s eyes settled on Ensign Eunhyuk, who had been strangely quiet. He couldn’t think of a better crew member to sacrifice to Ensign SungGyu’s team. He had heard Ensigns Eunhyuk and Junsu arguing frequently about Ensign Junsu’s friendship and admiration for Ensign SungGyu. Ensign Eunhyuk was not a fan of Ensign SungGyu, and Lieutenant Yesung was not a fan of Eunhyuk. “Wait, you can also take Ensign Eunhyuk with you.”  
  
Ensign Eunhyuk nodded his head and stepped forward to join Ensign SungGyu’s team. “Yes, Sir.”  
  
Yesung smiled, knowing he had the advantage  _and_  he had managed to get rid Jonghyun, who he considered a useless deadweight. Why the captain had sent a young, inexperienced transporter tech on an away mission he could not comprehend. He had also gotten rid of Ensign Eunhyuk, who could be downright disrespectful at times. And he had managed to get rid of Ensign SungGyu, who was trying to upstage him. He regretted losing Dr. Nam but he knew the doctor would not follow him. There were rumors about Dr. Nam and SungGyu being lovers, but Yesung still felt confident in his team even without the doctor.  
  
“Good luck,” Yesung told the other team, surprising himself at how sincere he managed to sound.  
  
****************  
  
“I knew this would happen.”  
  
Yoochun, who was sitting on the small sofa in his quarters watching Yunho pace, agreed, “You did.”  
  
“You know what his plan of action is?”  
  
“Is there one?”  
  
“It’s to wait! His plan is to wait! Wait!”  
  
“Oh, and you are so _not_  good at doing that.”  
  
“Now, the away team is cut off from us…like I knew would happen.”  
  
“You knew.”  
  
“I practically begged him to send them by shuttle but he rejected that idea…so now they are defenseless and trapped on a continent filled with killer insects that could hatch at anytime.”  
  
“They reported that the modifications Changmin made to the phasers allowed them to work when the shield was active,” Yoochun reminded the former captain.  
  
Yunho stopped pacing and held up his hands. “But we still can’t communicate with them or beam them back to the ship.”  
  
“There isn’t anything you can do.”  
  
Yunho sighed. “I just can’t help but worry for them.”  
  
“I know.”  
  
Yunho plopped down on the sofa beside Yoochun and confessed, “I feel…an unusual amount of anxiety.”  
  
“It’s because there is an idiot in charge of  _your_ ship and he won’t take any of your brilliant suggestions.”  
  
“He did allow Ensign SungGyu to join the away team.”  
  
Yoochun’s expression soured. “If he gets killed you are in so much trouble…I will actually have to work more.”  
  
“Yoochun…”  
  
“That boy has amazing skills at delegating. I never have to worry about any of the bureaucratic bullshit; I get to focus on being an engineer. I show up in the mornings and if there are any issues that need to be addressed he leaves me a nice list and his recommendations on dealing with the issues. The list is always alphabetized, too.”  
  
“At least you take advice from others.”  
  
“That’s because I am not King Leeteuk, who only wants his court of simpletons surrounding him. I have a low tolerance for stupid.”  
  
“You have a low tolerance for anybody who doesn’t have above average intelligence.”  
  
“So true…this is why I never liked Leeteuk. You should have never handed over command to that simpleton.”  
  
Yunho kept his mouth shut.  
  
Yoochun’s eyes widened when Yunho didn’t chastise him. Yoochun slowly turned to look at his oldest friend. “You have had enough of him, haven’t you?”  
  
“I didn’t say that.”  
  
“I can feel it. You are going to take back your ship. It’s about damn time!”  
  
“No…”  
  
“You should…that asexual freak needs to be knocked down a peg or two.”  
  
“Can we stop with the childish name calling?”  
  
“When I call him asexual it is the truth. The only hard on Leeteuk ever got was when he found out all his superior officers were dead and he was the highest ranking officer left on the Expectations.”  
  
“Stop it.”  
  
“He’s a fool.”  
  
“You are acting juvenile with this name calling.”  
  
“Don’t act like you approve of him or his methods.”  
  
“It’s his refusal to follow any suggestions that I find difficult to deal with.”  
  
“How difficult?”  
  
“At the moment I am having  _extreme_  difficulty.”  
  
“Go on…”  
  
“The entire away mission is at risk,” Yunho said in a perfectly controlled voice. “I suggested we send a shuttle down to study the perimeter and he also vetoed that idea.”  
  
“You should have never given up command.”  
  
“You have already said that.”  
  
“But you are starting to realize it…aren’t you?”  
  
“Maybe I always realized it…but it was the right thing to do. I was following Star Fleet regulations.”  
  
“Always following regulations.”  
  
“Not always.”  
  
“I would have backed you…if you had stayed in charge.”  
  
“I know you would have.”  
  
“He couldn’t have taken command if we both stood against him. This ship doesn’t move without my permission.”  
  
“He outranks me.”  
  
“He’s a shitty excuse for a captain.”  
  
“He outranks me.”  
  
“I promise you, if the admirals back at Starfleet had known we would be in this messy predicament someday…they would have fixed that.”  
  
“The admirals at Starfleet are not here…and he outranks me.”  
  
“What will it take for you to move against him?”  
  
“I will not commit mutiny.”  
  
“Even if the entire away team dies?”  
  
“Don’t say that.”  
  
“It could happen…it almost happened on the last mission. If you had not gone out of your way to develop a good relationship with the Rebellion the entire away team would have been lost.”  
  
“I know.”  
  
“Is it truly mutiny when you are acting in the best interest of the ship?”  
  
Yunho snorted. “Yes, it is. Almost all mutineers claim they were serving the greater good.”  
  
“It’s true in this case.”  
  
“I am not doing it. I just have to work on communicating with him…developing a rapport where he is more open to my suggestions and perhaps I need to try to understand his reasoning better.”  
  
“Or Jaejoong needs to pop that baby out already.”  
  
“Yoochun…”  
  
“Jaejoong will not allow you to suffer like this. He will take care of it.”  
  
“I will not allow him to do so.”  
  
“As if you could stop him.”  
  
“I am the one mind he can’t manipulate; well, not without my knowledge.”  
  
Yoochun leaned his head back. “You should let him.”  
  
“Absolutely not.”  
  
“Then maybe Heechul could declare him too stupid for duty,” Yoochun offered hopefully. “It’s true.”  
  
Yunho sneered. “Not likely.”  
  
Yoochun wrapped an arm around Yunho’s neck. “Are you still disenchanted with your first love’s recent behavior?”  
  
“He was not my first love.”  
  
“Your first man-crush then.”  
  
“The only relationship I have ever had with Heechul is one of friendship…and…”  
  
“And what?”  
  
“He seems different to me.”  
  
Yoochun shrugged. “He does seem different. I think he is probably having a hard time dealing with the fact he pranced all over the ship while claiming to be a pretty princess.”  
  
Yunho shook his head. “Would Heechul…really be bothered by that? I know I would be…but I thought he would take it more in stride…like you would.”  
  
The engineer removed his arm from around Yunho’s neck. “You think I would be okay with prancing around the ship thinking I was a pretty princess?”  
  
Yunho turned and looked at his friend. “I think you are comfortable enough with your sexuality that you could handle it.”  
  
Yoochun eyed his friend suspiciously and asked, “And you aren’t?”  
  
“Don’t.”  
  
“Why have you been hiding out in my quarters tonight?” Yoochun asked with a grin, suspecting something else was going on with his friend.  
  
“I am not hiding out…I need to talk this over with someone.”  
  
“Why not your beloved?”  
  
“Because the more I bitch to Jaejoong about it the more he will feel like has to act once his telepathy returns.”  
  
Yoochun smiled smugly. “I totally believe that…but explain to me again why you are not as comfortable with your sexuality as I am?”  
  
Yunho expression darkened. “We were discussing ship’s business.”  
  
“We were gossiping about what a sucky captain Leeteuk is…what did Jaejoong do?”  
  
“He’s done nothing…yet.”  
  
“Tell me now, or I will be forced to torture it out of you.”  
  
“Are you threatening me?”  
  
“I am just saying only one of us could have been a mastermind serial killer.”  
  
“Do not even joke about that.”  
  
“Tell me.”  
  
Yunho rotated his shoulders and complained, “It’s all Ryeowook’s fault.”  
  
A dumbfounded Yoochun asked, “How…why?”  
  
“He kept showing him pictures of cattle.”  
  
Yoochun looked truly confused when he asked, “Does Jaejoong want you to have sex with a cow? I didn’t know Joongs were that freaky.”  
  
Yunho turned to give Yoochun a completely deadpan look. “Yeah, that is it. You guessed it.”  
  
“On…the holodeck?”  
  
“You are one sick bastard!”  
  
“Hey, we knew that already. I am just trying to catch on!”  
  
“Jaejoong wants to fuck me…there, are you happy? Let the mockery commence.”  
  
Yoochun was unable to hide his surprise. “You have never let Jaejoong fuck you?”  
  
Yunho fidgeted in his seat. “Shut up.”  
  
“It’s actually quite pleasurable.”  
  
“Shut up.”  
  
“It’s completely idiotic how some people… _including you_ …continue to associate penetration with masculinity or lack of masculinity.”  
  
“Stop.”  
  
“Do you think I’m less of a man because I have had guys fuck me up the ass?”  
  
“No, of course not!”  
  
“Good, because it has nothing to do with manhood.”  
  
“I know this.”  
  
“Then you are a very selfish lover.”  
  
“Don’t say that!”  
  
“It’s the truth,” Yoochun told Yunho. “He’s having your baby and you won’t even give him this.” He shook his finger at him. “Bad Yunho! Bad!”  
  
Yunho moaned. “Where is Kangin when I need him?”  
  
“He is stranded on a planet with vampire spiders.”  
  
Yunho got off the sofa and explained, “I know it’s totally selfish of me…but the idea literally turns me off. I just…I can’t.”  
  
“Is this the first time he’s asked?”  
  
Yunho nodded his head. “When his abilities aren’t being blocked…he gets how…how uncomfortable I am…and he feels the discomfort.”  
  
“Yeah, I can get where you being petrified would be a turn off to an empath.”  
  
“I just…I have to focus on the ship right now, before somebody dies.”  
  
“If somebody dies, it isn’t your fault. There isn’t anything you could have done short of mutiny…although, like I said, you have my support if you decide to mutiny,” Yoochun said, reassuring his friend.  
  
Yunho sat back down on the sofa and asked Yoochun, “Do you sometimes get the feeling he is looking for something specific?”  
  
“What do you mean?”  
  
“He says the reason we are not searching for a way home is because it is part of Star Fleet’s mission is to explore. He seems very interested in the technology in this galaxy.”  
  
“The technology in this galaxy is very interesting; to be fair, it makes no sense at all. It has no technical basis for why it works. It left Changmin deeply baffled at times.”  
  
“But it seems like…there is more to it. He won’t let me go on away missions, because he says he can’t in good conscience risk Jaejoong or Changmin…but why does he not allow Kyuhyun to go on them?”  
  
“Because Kyuhyun doesn’t do a good enough job of hiding the fact that he thinks Leeteuk’s a dumbass. He won’t let me go either.”  
  
Yunho shook his head. “It still seems like he is searching for something specific…something he doesn’t want us to know about. Don’t you find anything odd about the planets we have visited and the directions we have gone?”  
  
“No, he says he is just randomly picking directions and planets…and it seems very random.”  
  
“But what if it isn’t?”  
  
“What are you saying?”  
  
Yunho pondered over his answer carefully before answering the question, “I am not sure…it just seems like I am missing something vital. I can’t shake my gut feeling that something isn’t right.”  
  
Yoochun could not hide his growing unease. “Then you better listen to your gut…Star Fleet spent a lot of time nurturing your gut feelings. Now, I am worried. Yunho, your gut feeling isn’t something to take lightly. How many times has it saved your ass? All our asses?”  
  
“I need proof of—”  
  
Yunho was interrupted when his insignia went off and the voice of Jaejoong was clearly heard, “Where are you?”  
  
Yunho paled and before he could answer, Yoochun answered for him, “He’s hiding from your cock.”  
  
The former captain glared at his best friend.  
  
“Well…tell the coward my cock is no longer interested in him, along with the rest of my body.”  
  
Yoochun lifted his hand up to his face to hide his grin when he told Jaejoong, “I will do that your, Highness.”  
  
“Jaejoong, I am actually discussing—” Yunho stopped when he heard Jaejoong close the connection between them.  
  
“Oops, my bad.”  
  
Yunho sighed and got up from the sofa. “Can you be serious for just a moment? We were actually discussing something very important, now you have him all worked up. I will have to go settle him down.”  
  
“Then in all seriousness, believe me,” Yoochun told Yunho. “I am on your side. You tell me what you want and all of engineering will support you. I don’t allow the type who will kiss Leeteuk’s ass in my department. If I see them exhibiting any of that kind of behavior I reassign them to security.”  
  
“I don’t want to do anything…not yet…just wait and keep your eyes open.”  
  
“I will be hyper alert,” Yoochun vowed. “If you want to wait…we will wait; if you want to mutiny, we will mutiny.”  
  
“I would rather not spend the rest of my life in a penal colony with you,” Yunho told Yoochun as he headed for the door.  
  
Yoochun got up to walk his friend out. “I know…you stuck on a  _penile_  colony; that is like, your worst nightmare come true.”  
  
Yunho stopped in his tracks, clenched his fists and swung around to face his friend. “That’s it. I am going kick your ass.”  
  
Yoochun held up his hands in surrender and slowly started backing away, but couldn’t stop laughing at the infuriated look on his friend’s face.  
  
  
**************  
  
  
“I am going to die,” Ensign Jonghyun complained to Ensign Eunhyuk as they followed Ensign SungGyu and Dr. Nam up the rocky path. The journey had been cold and tedious with Ensign SungGyu making sure they maintained a steady pace. The only excitement came from the occasional encounter with the gentle goat-like creatures that that inhabited the mountain.  
  
WooHyun, who had been eavesdropping on the ensigns to distract himself from the cold weather, frowned.  
  
“Don’t say that,” Eunhyuk scolded as he wiped his uniform free of the light snow that was falling. “What a crazy thing to say.”  
  
“It’s true,” Jonghyun insisted. “I’m totally the red shirt on this mission.”  
  
“No…no, you are not.”  
  
“Yes, I am. I am a transporter tech…what the hell am I doing on an away mission? I never wanted to be on away missions.”  
  
“That doesn’t mean you are the red shirt,” Eunhyuk persisted. “Maybe…maybe the captain thought you would…would be useful somehow.”  
  
“Or he is still a little light in the head.”  
  
Eunhyuk frowned. “Don’t say that about the captain…I am sure he had his reasons for sending you.”  
  
“His reason was to provide the mission with a red shirt.”  
  
“There are a lot of unproven ensigns with Lieutenant Yesung’s group, too,” Eunhyuk pointed out.  
  
“I am the red shirt, don’t deny it.”  
  
“You’re not.”  
  
“I am and we both know the red shirt always dies.”  
  
“You aren’t a red shirt…it could be someone else.”  
  
Jonghyun rubbed his freezing hands together. “I guess it could be you.”  
  
“Me? I am no red shirt. I am a bridge officer,” an affronted Eunhyuk promptly denied. “I am not a red shirt.”  
  
WooHyun reached out and took SungGyu’s hand, subtly squeezed it, and whispered, “We need to take a break.”  
  
SungGyu, who was focused on the task ahead of him, shook his head. “We have a long way to go. The danger increases the longer we wait.”  
  
“We need to take a break.”  
  
“No,” SungGyu insisted, freeing his hand of WooHyun’s. “The Jex could emerge anytime, and the snow isn’t heavy right now. We can’t afford to take a break.”  
  
“We are taking a break,” WooHyun stated loudly for all to hear, stopping in place. “We need to warm up a little.”  
  
“I am all for a break,” Ensign Jonghyun quickly and eagerly agreed.  
  
“A short break,” a perturbed looking SungGyu agreed, knowing better than to argue with the doctor. He then pulled out his phaser, adjusted the settings and aimed it at one of the larger rocks on their path. The rock glowed red as the heat of the phaser warmed it. The team quickly gathered around the rock to get warmer.  
  
Once they were all settled in and sitting around the heated rock, WooHyun turned to Jonghyun and asked, “What is this about a red shirt? The only one wearing red is Ensign SungGyu.”  
  
“He isn’t a red shirt though,” Jonghyun quickly explained. “It has nothing to do with the color of the uniform.”  
  
“Then why call it a red shirt?” a perplexed WooHyun asked.  
  
SungGyu answered, “It is an old Star Fleet superstition.”  
  
“Superstition about what?” WooHyun questioned.  
  
Eunhyuk explained, “A long time ago on away missions the guy in the red uniform almost always died. Back in those days the command officers all wore gold.”  
  
“Yeah, it got to where nobody wanted to wear red anymore,” Jonghyun added. “So they changed the uniforms so the command officers wear red now.”  
  
WooHyun turned to SungGyu. “But you are an ensign?”  
  
“I took command courses at the academy,” SungGyu explained.  
  
“Not all command officers start off in red,” Eunhyuk explained. “Usually they have to make lieutenant before they get to wear red. But SungGyu here…was a shining star at the academy, weren’t you?”  
  
SungGyu, who made no attempt to be humble, agreed, “Yes, I was. I was at the top of my class. Since my second year at the academy I have worn red.”  
  
Eunhyuk stared back at SungGyu, who he considered to be an arrogant lower ranking ensign and quickly reminded them all, “Some people do not take command courses at the academy but work their way up the command ladder. Some of the greatest commanders…were just people who knew how to act in adverse situations.”  
  
“That hasn’t happened in decades,” SungGyu pointed out. “Star Fleet Academy tests every cadet for  _The Kirk Factor_ to see if they have command potential, so very few natural leaders slip through the cracks anymore.”  
  
“It could still happen,” Eunhyuk declared; he was itching to remind SungGyu he was actually the higher ranking ensign on the mission.  
  
SungGyu shrugged. “I suppose if you were in Star Fleet long enough.”  
  
“What about doctors? Can a doctor be a red shirt?” WooHyun asked, looking down at his blue uniform.  
  
“No, not you,” Jonghyun reassured him.  
  
“Why not me?”  
  
“Because of him,” Jonghyun said, pointing at SungGyu. “He’s the chosen one and you are his best friend. You two have many adventures ahead of you.”  
  
Eunhyuk sneered in disdain.  _“The chosen one?”_  
  
“Yep,” Jonghyun said nodding his head. “Lieutenant SooYoung told Minho to stick with Ensign SungGyu; that he was the best chance this mission had of success.”  
  
SungGyu brightened considerably. “She did?”  
  
“Yep, and everybody knows you are Commander Jung’s favorite,” Jonghyun added.  
  
“No,” SungGyu replied, shaking his head. “No, no I am not.”  
  
“You totally are,” Eunhyuk told him, “But you aren’t Captain Leeteuk’s favorite, are you?”  
  
SungGyu met Eunhyuk’s gaze and told him, “None of us on this mission are his favorites, it appears.”  
  
Eunhyuk frowned. “Why do you say that?”  
  
“If we were his favorites we would have come by shuttle,” SungGyu said as he stood back up and stretched. “But as it is, we are going to actually have to use our legs to make it up the rest of this mountain.”  
  
“Are you confidant the power source is at the top?” Jonghyun asked as he also stood up.  
  
“I am confident,” SungGyu told him. “It’s the only choice that makes sense.”  
  
WooHyun gracefully stood back up and asked, “So you are certain Lieutenant Yesung is going in the wrong direction?”  
  
SungGyu looked at Eunhyuk and asked, “What do you think? You were on the last planet that had a shield like this. Do you think it is in the village or on the mountain top?”  
  
“The mountain top,” Eunhyuk reluctantly admitted. “The other one was on a moon. I am pretty sure Changmin had some logical reason for it being in an elevated position.”  
  
“He did,” SungGyu agreed. “I read the reports. I know walking down to the village would be the warmer and easier choice, but I am convinced it is the wrong path. Since this planet has no moons, the mountain top is our best chance.”  
  
Eunhyuk nodded his head. “I agree”  
  
“So let’s get moving,” SungGyu said as he started back up the path. This time Eunhyuk followed closely behind him. “Sadly, those clouds do not look promising. It looks like more snow is on the way.”  
  
Eunhyuk looked up at the sky and saw the dark clouds moving in. “Why didn’t he send a shuttle with us?” The navigator couldn’t keep from asking. It bothered him that so many were pointing out flaws in Captain’s Leeteuk’s logic…flaws he couldn’t ignore any longer.  
  
“That, Ensign Eunhyuk, is a very good question,” SungGyu replied. “I can’t imagine why any captain would risk stranding us here like this.”  
  
WooHyun hung back with Jonghyun and told him, “I don’t like that you think you’re a red shirt. You should put such thoughts out of your head.”  
  
Jonghyun smiled at the doctor and confessed, “I actually feel a lot better about that, now. I have a feeling we are going to be the ones that save the day in the end.”  
  
“Oh, most definitely,” WooHyun said, grinning back at the ensign.  
  
  
******************************  
  
  
“Yunho, can we talk?” Heechul asked as soon as Yunho and Jaejoong walked into sickbay the next morning for Jaejoong’s scheduled examination.  
  
Yunho and Jaejoong, who both looked glum, turned to face the chief medical officer, neither looking pleased to see him.  
  
“Perhaps later; I need to be with Jaejoong, now.”  
  
“Of course,” Heechul quickly agreed. “I meant after Jaejoong’s exam, of course.”  
  
“I am also trying to get the captain to see me,” Yunho told the doctor, not bothering to hide his irritation. “I am hoping to persuade him into actually doing something in regards to the missing away team, so if he grants me an audience I will have to postpone our talk.”  
  
“I understand, and I wish you luck with the captain.”  
  
Yunho’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Do you?”  
  
“Yes,” Heechul assured Yunho. “I do not want the away team to come to harm.”  
  
Jaejoong walked away from Yunho and Heechul’s conversation, not even remotely interested in what they had to say to each other. He didn’t need telepathy to know his mate was extremely irritated with the doctor. He headed into the exam room where he found Ryeowook waiting for him.  
  
“Good Morning,” Doctor Cho told the Joong.  
  
“What’s so good about it?” Jaejoong grumbled as he sat on the exam bed. “I have been pregnant for 94 days. I’d like to know what is good about that.”  
  
“Well, look on the bright side; if you were a normal human your pregnancy would be much longer…at this point you would have been pregnant for 284 days.”  
  
“If you just jinxed me into being in this state for 190 more days…I will hurt you…hurt you bad!”  
  
Ryeowook winced, noticing his friend’s foul mood.  
  
“Did I just hear you speak? Did words leave your mouth?” Yunho asked as he entered the exam room, having left Heechul behind. “I thought perhaps you had forgotten how to talk.”  
  
Jaejoong folded his arms in front of him, clamped his mouth shut, and glared at his mate with his vivid blue eyes.  
  
“Trouble in paradise?” Dr. Cho asked as he reviewed the readings on the monitor.  
  
“This ship is far from paradise at the moment,” Yunho told the doctor and then clamped his own mouth shut. The ship had been out of contact with the away team for a total of eighteen hours, and Captain Leeteuk still insisted on doing nothing. The stress of what was going on with the ship and the away team, plus having to deal with an extremely moody mate was weighing on Yunho and he was close to reaching the limit to his patience.  
  
“Both of you are in bad moods…great,” Dr. Cho commented.  
  
“Yes,” Yunho admitted. “And I would appreciate it if you would never ever bring up bovines again in his presence.”  
  
“Bovines?” Ryeowook asked, looking completely confused by Yunho’s request.  
  
Jaejoong snorted and lay down on the exam table.  
  
“Okay, I won’t…” a still confused Ryeowook agreed. Dr. Cho stepped closer to the bed and looked up at the scanners. “No more talk of cows, I promise. We should be focusing on this wonderful news instead.”  
  
Jaejoong looked up at the scanners above his head. “What?”  
  
“He’s growing again and he’s moving into position,” Ryeowook explained. “This is good news.”  
  
“Growing again? I thought he was already fully developed?” an excited Yunho blurted out. “When you say moving into position…do you mean he is getting ready to be born?”  
  
“Yep,” Ryeowook answered as he reached out and felt Jaejoong’s stomach. “He’s just putting on some extra weight.”  
  
“How much extra weight?” Yunho asked.  
  
“He’s at about 5kg. He’s a big baby,” Ryeowook answered, giving Jaejoong a sympathetic look. “Maybe he won’t get much bigger.”  
  
Jaejoong, who hadn’t said anything since Yunho entered the room, just closed his eyes.  
  
Yunho reached down and squeezed Jaejoong’s wrist. “Hey, stop pouting. This is good news. Soon Changmin will be born…won’t he?”  
  
“Yes,” Heechul, who was leaning against the doorway, answered as he studied the monitors. “He could be born today or anytime in the next ten days.”  
  
An unpleased Jaejoong sat up and glared at Heechul. “I believe I have requested repeatedly that you not be present for my examinations.”  
  
“Yes, you have, but as Chief Medical Officer the health of every member of this crew is my concern,” Heechul replied, “Even yours.”  
  
“Since I am capable of healing myself, please feel free to exclude me from your concerns.”  
  
Heechul sighed. “Unfortunately, I can not take you up on your offer…since Changmin resides inside of you; but I can respect your current wishes and leave…for now.”  
  
Jaejoong watched Heechul leave the exam room. “I didn’t think I could like him less…and then I did. I prefer him crazy.”  
  
Yunho, who was still holding Jaejoong’s wrist, asked, “Why aren’t you happier? Are you worried about the birth? I think I remember you telling me once that you wouldn’t be spared the pain of labor.”  
  
Jaejoong pulled his arm free of Yunho and swung around to sit on the side of the exam bed, but in doing so he almost tumbled off the bed. Being pregnant had only added to Jaejoong’s lack of grace, but luckily Yunho was there to grab a hold of him and prevent him from falling, which irritated Jaejoong even more. “If you haven’t noticed, I am trying to be angry with you!”  
  
Yunho turned to Ryeowook and asked, “Will you please give us a moment?”  
  
Ryeowook nodded his head and left the exam room.  
  
Yunho placed both of his hands on the side of Jaejoong’s face. “Please, let it go.”  
  
“Yunho—”  
  
“I know I was a jerk yesterday. This time I am completely in the wrong. I know this and I am sorry. I behaved badly, but I can’t change how I feel.”  
  
“I will soon be able to change how you feel,” Jaejoong threatened.  
  
“You can, but I will know you are doing it.”  
  
“What does that mean?”  
  
“It means…it means we are having a baby…why are we fighting about this? It was never an issue before. Why do you have to make an issue of it right now?”  
  
“Because…because I am sick of being pregnant, sick of these blue eyes, sick of this blond hair, and I am sick of being a hermaphrodite. I want my old body back…the one you chose.”  
  
“You are beautiful in your Joong form,” Yunho told him in soft whisper as he ran one hand through Jaejoong’s hair. “So beautiful.”  
  
“I am sick of being feminine.”  
  
Yunho bent down and kissed Jaejoong’s forehead. “Honey, I hate to break it to you, but you were never a shining example of masculinity.”  
  
“No, but you never called me  _Honey_  then!”  
  
“I will stop immediately,” Yunho vowed, realizing what he was unconsciously doing.  
  
Jaejoong leaned his head against Yunho’s chest. “I just want him to be born so I can switch back.”  
  
“He’s on his way.”  
  
“But then I am conflicted because I don’t want him to be born either.”  
  
Yunho continued to run his hand through Jaejoong’s hair. “I am confused.”  
  
“I want him to be born but I also don’t want him to be born. His birth only means the day of our reckoning is growing closer.”  
  
“Have you already forgotten about Taemin? He could be proof that the day never comes…or that we find a way to survive.”  
  
“He could have been from an alternate reality,” Jaejoong reminded his mate. “Taemin is not proof of anything.”  
  
“He is to me…I have no intention of dying,” Yunho assured his mate, “None at all. I don’t know how I know…but I know Taemin is our future son from this reality.”  
  
“You can’t know that.”  
  
“But I do know.”  
  
Jaejoong sighed and wrapped his arms around Yunho’s waist, while keeping his head pressed to his lover’s chest. “I am sorry…for being difficult. I know the situation on the ship is killing you.”  
  
Yunho closed his eyes. “I…I have to convince him to send help to the away team. I can’t even imagine why he thinks it is okay not to send help.”  
  
“If you can’t convince him…I will,” Jaejoong promised. “Once Changmin is born this ship will no longer be at the mercy of that lunatic.”  
  
Yunho pressed a kiss to Jaejoong’s forehead. “No, I will handle it. You can not be involved in any way. Captain Leeteuk is my problem.”  
  
  
************  
  
  
  
Kangin stood outside in the chilly weather gazing at the mountain in the near distance. Lieutenant Yesung had led them to the village where the beacon had originally been found. The people in the village had been extremely friendly…too friendly, if you asked Kangin. They had offered to house and feed the away team, promising to lead them to the shield’s power source at first dawn. Night was quickly approaching and a storm was rolling in.  
  
“Do you think they will be okay?” Ensign Minho asked as he stepped out of one of the large huts the villagers made their homes in.  
  
“They have the standard survival gear.”  
  
“And thankfully the phasers work,” Minho added as he walked over to stand beside Kangin. “The insignias continue to be worthless along with the tricorders,, unfortunately.”  
  
“Hey, the universal translators are working…that’s a plus. If they didn’t, our poor fearless leader might not get a nice comfy bed to sleep in and a full stomach.”  
  
“Fearless?”  
  
Kangin just grinned and pointed out, “The storm looks nasty. It has to be worse up on the mountain. It’s so much colder up there.”  
  
“I am sure they have taken cover.”  
  
“Yeah, and hopefully they will get to the top of the mountain and turn off the shield before the mean spider bats hatch and get pissed.”  
  
“Spider bats?”  
  
“My name for the Jex.”  
  
“It is a rather accurate description.”  
  
“So do you agree the villagers are not going to lead us to any power source tomorrow?”  
  
“Yes,” Minho concurred, looking around the primitive village. “It is very doubtful the power source is here…as I have repeatedly informed the lieutenant.”  
  
Kangin reached out and patted Minho’s back. “It’s not your fault that Lieutenant Yesung is an idiot.”  
  
“Then why did Captain Leeteuk give him command of this mission?” Minho questioned the older ensign.  
  
The older man shuffled his feet nervously before he answered honestly, “Nothing was ever easy for Captain Leeteuk…he had to fight for everything he had. Yunho had a natural ability to lead others that made his superiors dote on him, Kyuhyun had two powerful admirals as parents…Leeteuk had to work harder and longer than everybody else…I really think he just wants to give Lieutenant Yesung a chance to prove himself.”  
  
Minho frowned. “Although his reasons seem kindhearted they are not logical. The academy tests everyone on their command abilities. I know some believe in fairness…but I am not in favor of it when my life and the lives of others are put at risk.”  
  
Kangin rubbed the back of his neck. He felt the need to defend his old friend. “Captain Leeteuk has his reasons…and Lieutenant Yesung did pass his command courses.”  
  
“He was only allowed to take command courses after applying multiple times, and he barely passed them,” Minho pointed out. “I am well aware of Lieutenant Yesung’s record at the academy.”  
  
“Even Yunho let him be in charge of the bridge on the third shift,” Kangin reminded Minho.  
  
“Yes, with the understanding that he would immediately contact a superior if a problem arose,” Minho clarified. “I have worked with him on the bridge multiple times and it was not always a pleasant experience.”  
  
Kangin reluctantly nodded his head. “At least he let us break into two groups.”  
  
“It wasn’t his idea.”  
  
“I know…”  
  
“Ensign SungGyu barely managed to talk sense into him.”  
  
“No, he just showed him up a couple of times, and then Lieutenant Yesung’s ego was more than happy to part with the golden ensign,” Kangin answered with a snort.  
  
Minho smiled remembering Lieutenant Yesung’s frustration. “At least Captain Leeteuk had the good sense to include Ensign SungGyu on the away team.”  
  
Kangin gave an uneasy chuckle but didn’t correct the young science officer’s misconception.  
  
**********************  
  
“Captain, I need to speak with you,” Heechul announced as he entered the Captain’s Ready Room.  
  
Captain Leeteuk, who was sitting at his desk sipping tea, set his cup down and sighed in relief at seeing the doctor. “Oh, it is just you. I have this fear that Commander Jung is going to storm in here any moment and strangle me.”  
  
“Yes, you are wise to be afraid,” Heechul agreed as he remained standing. “Your recklessness with the crew’s lives, your inability to admit wrong doing, and your refusal to correct your prior mistakes is pushing all of Commander Jung’s buttons.”  
  
Leeteuk weakly smiled and leaned back in his chair. “I know…it’s working exactly as planned. Only the extremely obtuse would fail to notice how displeased he is with me.”  
  
“And anyone who isn’t extremely obtuse would share his growing concerns.”  
  
“Oh, please…most of these people like to take orders. They wouldn’t have joined Star Fleet in the first place if they didn’t like to be told what to do. Commander Jung is the exception…born to command and all that. He just can’t help himself. He’s so…so…” Leeteuk paused trying to think of a proper word to describe his very disgruntled second in command. “Noble.”  
  
“He’s about to be a father, too.”  
  
“Yes, I know.’  
  
“Soon.”  
  
“Soon?” Leeteuk questioned, his calm fading quickly into alarm.  
  
“Yes, soon.”  
  
“I need specifics! Don’t play word games with me!” a panicked Leeteuk demanded as he stood up and slammed the palms of his hands against his desk.  
  
“I mean Changmin will be born within the next ten days, perhaps as early as tomorrow.”  
  
“Maybe it will not be as soon as you think…he’s a hybrid. You could be wrong.”  
  
“Do you want to risk it? Changmin might be half human, but Jaejoong is not…and once Jaejoong’s telepathy returns—”  
  
“We are finished,” Leeteuk announced as he walked around his desk and started pacing his office. “We will have to move up the plan.”  
  
“I know this.”  
  
“It’s unfortunate, but it can’t be helped.”  
  
“The plan will have to be adapted,” Heechul reminded the captain.  
  
“Yes, I know. I am adapting it as we speak,” Leeteuk told Heechul as he pressed his insignia. “Commander Jung, please inform Ensigns Zelo, Jong Up, and Ilhoon they will making up the next rescue team. I have decided to take your advice and send a shuttle to the planet. You pick the pilot of your choice, but not Ensign Junsu. Maybe Ensign Changjo…yes, definitely him. He’s never gotten to fly an actual shuttle before. They will be leaving by shuttle at 0800.”  
  
“Sir, I strongly protest,” was Yunho’s immediate response.  
  
“Protest noted,” Leeteuk responded, while grinning at Heechul. He then tapped the insignia, ending his connection with Yunho.  
  
“You are going to send him over the edge…those boys are practically infants.”  
  
Leeteuk leaned his head back and said through his laughter, “I know…two of them were first years and the other two were barely in their second year. I feel mutiny in the air.”  
  
Heechul leaned against the wall of the cabin and curiously asked, “Are you really going to send them?”  
  
“No, no, no…” Leeteuk quickly answered, sitting back down at his desk. “I am going to send Ensign Henry and Lieutenants SooYoung and DongHae in their place…but that is just between the two of us.”  
  
Heechul nodded his head in approval, “A much wiser choice…you will have gotten rid of the science officer, the transporter chief, and the engineering prodigy at a most opportune time.”  
  
Leeteuk picked up his cup of tea and slowly took a sip before replying to Heechul. “I know…it’s all too easy.”


	3. So Little Personal Integrity

“I hate away missions,” Ensign Jonghyun whispered to Ensign Eunhyuk, who was huddled up next to him. The two ensigns were on night watch. The four members of the away team that were venturing up the mountain towards the Fortress of Snow were settled together in a dome shaped environmental shelter that was generated by a small portable force field.  
  
“Isn’t this your first one?”  
  
“Yes, but I hate it.”  
  
“What is there not to love?” Eunhyuk asked sarcastically.  
  
“We are on the side of a mountain…in a blizzard.”  
  
“It’s not a blizzard.”  
  
“It’s snowing…really hard.”  
  
“At least we are warm in here,” Eunhyuk pointed out, trying to sound optimistic. His normal need to complain was being suppressed momentarily by his need to sound experienced and optimistic for the younger ensign. “It could be worse.”  
  
“Yeah, we could be dead.”  
  
Eunhyuk looked accusingly at the younger man. “I thought you were going to stop with the negativity?”  
  
Jonghyun shrugged. “I am trying, but it’s just creepy here.”  
  
“Think about something else.”  
  
Ensign Jonghyun looked down at Ensign SungGyu and Doctor Nam, who appeared to be sleeping soundly. “I wish I was like Ensign SungGyu. He fell asleep instantly…like there was nothing at all to be worried about.”  
  
Eunhyuk followed Jonghyun’s gaze and agreed, “Yeah, he didn’t have any trouble falling asleep.”  
  
Jonghyun leaned into Eunhyuk and asked in a whisper, “So…do you think they are lovers?”  
  
Eunhyuk leaned his head away from Jonghyun, gave him a dirty look and stated, “I don’t know.”  
  
“They seem _very_  close.”  
  
“They really don’t,” Eunhyuk disagreed. “I haven’t seen anything romantic going on between them. They have been very professional.”  
  
“No…but they  _seem_  close.”  
  
“You said yourself they were best friends,” the older ensign reminded the transporter tech. “Best friends are close. I don’t know about you but I don’t have sex with my best friends.”  
  
“Yeah…maybe they are like Kirk and McCoy; best friends for life…space brothers.”  
  
Eunhyuk groaned. “You did not just compare them to Kirk and McCoy? Are you delusional?”  
  
“No, but just think about it. Doctor Nam betrayed his home world in order to save the away team on Kanzi…it just seems like destiny…like some epic tale that has just begun.”  
  
“Junsu was also there.”  
  
“Maybe Junsu is going to be their Sulu?” Jonghyun suggested and then eagerly added, “And I bet SooYoung will be Mr. Spock.”  
  
“Are you high?”  
  
“No, Lieutenant SooYoung really likes SungGyu and she barely acknowledges the rest of the men on the ship. I wonder if they are the real item,” Jonghyun speculated with his eyes widening in excitement. “He’s so lucky...damn.”  
  
“Stop gossiping,” Eunhyuk ordered.  
  
“Excuse me…you said to think of something else,” Jonghyun reminded Eunhyuk.  
  
Ensign Eunhyuk leaned into Ensign Jonghyun and advised him, “If you are going to gossip about people…don’t do it while they are sleeping less than half a meter away from you.”  
  
“True,” the younger man conceded. “I will stop.”  
  
“Good.”  
  
Both ensigns sat there in silence until the quiet was disturbed by a loud howl.  
  
Jonghyun eyes widened. “Was that a wolf?”  
  
“No.”  
  
“It wasn’t a mountain goat!”  
  
The howl returned, louder this time.  
  
“If they have killer spiders on this planet, can you imagine what their wolves are like?” Jonghyun questioned. “I wonder if they can also fly.”  
  
The howling increased, putting them both on edge.  
  
Eunhyuk pulled out his phaser and clutched it. “We…we…we…have phasers.”  
  
“God above!” Doctor Nam exclaimed, sitting up and flapping his arms. “It’s not a wolf! It’s the wind! It’s the wind! You two go to sleep, now! The both of you constantly prattling on and on…how is a normal person supposed to sleep?”  
  
Both ensigns immediately lay down and closed their eyes tightly. They knew better than to argue with the grumpy doctor.  
  
“Oh, and not that it is any of your business, but we are not lovers,” WooHyun hissed. “And neither are Ensign SungGyu and Lieutenant SooYoung for that matter!”  
  
WooHyun watched the two other ensigns as they pretended to be asleep at first, only to fall quickly to sleep not minutes later. How Star Fleet officers could sleep so easily was beyond WooHyun’s understanding. He had not slept at all. Did Star Fleet cadets receive special training or was it just a natural ability that all Earth humans shared?  
  
He stared down at SungGyu, who was sleeping like a baby in his mother’s arms. SungGyu had not even stirred and WooHyun felt extremely annoyed by this. Out of spite he smacked SungGyu on the ass. “You get up. If I can’t sleep, you can’t sleep either.”  
  
SungGyu’s eyes opened and he was instantly awake. “Has it stopped snowing?”  
  
“I don’t know,” WooHyun grumbled. “I just thought we would send the kids to bed and share this watch. I couldn’t sleep.”  
  
“I was sleeping with ease,” SungGyu stated, sitting up and stretching his arms out above his head. “Also Ensign Eunhyuk is older than both of us and Ensign Jonghyun is older than you. To refer to them as  _kids_  is highly inappropriate.”  
  
WooHyun shook his head. “You are so weird.”  
  
“I am merely stating a fact.”  
  
“I was just commenting on how you go from being sound asleep to wide awake in an instance. It’s unnatural.”  
  
“It is natural for me. You know once I am awake…I am wide awake,” SungGyu reminded him. “However, I do still have the tendency to sleep through a lot.”  
  
“Yeah, like endless jabbering.”  
  
“But not swift slaps to the ass.”  
  
“No, but I must admit you are close to winning the soundly sleeping award away from Sulli.”  
  
“Lieutenant SooYoung’s cousin?”  
  
“Yes, she never stirs from her sleep, so for right now she has you beat.”  
  
“Is she not in stasis?”  
  
“She is.”  
  
“Then she does not awaken because she is all but dead.”  
  
“She is not dead, her stasis setting are very low…it’s like she is in a deep sleep.”  
  
“I was not aware of that.”  
  
“SooYoung thinks she will wake up soon.”  
  
“Really?”  
  
“Yes, once Jaejoong’s baby is born.”  
  
SungGyu narrowed his gaze and did not bother to hide his skepticism. “Why would Changmin’s birth herald her awakening?”  
  
“SooYoung believes they are bonded.”  
  
“That makes no sense…why would his being born make her wake up then?”  
  
“Because he will be alive.”  
  
“WooHyun, surely as a doctor you realize he is alive now,” SungGyu pointed out. “He has brain capacity.”  
  
“I may not be a _Star Fleet_   _doctor_  but I am aware of this.”  
  
“I am curious; did she require less life support as Jaejoong’s pregnancy progressed?”  
  
“No, she has always required the same amount.”  
  
“Then I believe Lieutenant’s SooYoung’s theory to be flawed.”  
  
“I highly doubt that,” WooHyun insisted. “She is very attentive to her cousin. She and Minho both are. They visit her regularly.”  
  
“Perhaps her emotional sentiment has tarnished her usually sound judgment.”  
  
“No,” WooHyun protested. “Her theory is that while the baby is inside Jaejoong…the bond is completely blocked by Jaejoong’s superior mental abilities, but once he is born she should awaken.”  
  
“Has she told anyone else this theory?”  
  
“I don’t know…Minho knows, of course.”  
  
“It’s highly illogical.”  
  
“Well, I will have to disagree with you. SooYoung and Minho are both smart and they both agree on this theory.”  
  
“Very true…they are extremely intelligent,” SungGyu conceded as he grabbed a light and got up. “But now is not the time to ponder the highly unlikely theories of the Choi siblings.”  
  
“Why are you getting up?”  
  
SungGyu looked down at the doctor and informed him, “Now that I have fulfilled my forth life’s motto, I am eager to fulfill my first one.”  
  
“Not to get killed,” WooHyun responded, repeating the motto.  
  
“Exactly,” SungGyu confirmed as he activated the force field controls and an opening appeared. “It’s still dark and it’s windy, but the snow has stopped.”  
  
“And…”  
  
“We can continue on our journey,” SungGyu answered as he stepped outside. “Waiting serves no purpose.”  
  
WooHyun whined as he got up and followed SungGyu outside. “Are you serious?”  
  
“I am.”  
  
“It’s dark.”  
  
“We have lights.”  
  
“To say it is freezing is an understatement.”  
  
“Our clothing both insulates us and provides heat.”  
  
“We are on the side of a mountain.”  
  
“We need to be at the mountain’s peak.”  
  
WooHyun just whimpered knowing he would not be able to talk the other man out of leaving.  
  
“Doctor Nam, put on your supportive face, the other two will do enough whining on your behalf.”  
  
“I will,” WooHyun groaned. “Sometimes…”  
  
SungGyu flashed the light on the disgruntled doctor. “Sometimes what?”  
  
WooHyun frowned.  
  
“Do you regret your decision to give up the life you knew to follow me so blindly?”  
  
“I do not follow you blindly,” WooHyun protested. “I am well aware of where I am going and I do not regret my choices.”  
  
“Good,” SungGyu told him as he reentered the force field and ordered, “Ensign Eunhyuk and Ensign Jonghyun, get up. We have a mission to complete.”  
  
Woohyun waited outside as SungGyu woke the others and mumbled under his breath, “I do regret the total lack of sex, however.”  
  
  
***********************  
  
  
“Kyuhyun, please don’t do anything stupid,” Ryeowook blurted out as he rushed into Kyuhyun’s quarters. Captain Leeteuk’s unlikely choices for the team to make up the rescue mission were spreading across the ship at a rapid speed. Ryeowook knew Yunho would never stand for sending such inexperienced boys on a rescue mission and he feared Kyuhyun would support him.  
  
“Ryeowook,” Kyuhyun admonished from inside the bedroom. “What happened to knocking?”  
  
“At a time like this normal pleasantries can’t be followed.”  
  
“You are the one that insisted we have separate living quarters.”  
  
“I did but—don’t distract me! I am worried about you.”  
  
“Don’t be,” Kyuhyun replied from inside the bedroom.  
  
“How can I not be?” Ryeowook asked as he hurried to the bedroom door but stopped before entering. He inhaled a deep breath, slowly let it out, and tried to sound calmer. “Just promise me…not to do anything stupid.”  
  
Kyuhyun emerged from the bedroom, fully dressed, and gave his estranged husband a disapproving look. “It isn’t stupid.”  
  
“It is reckless.”  
  
“I will do what is required of me.”  
  
“Let Yunho handle it…Yunho can handle it. Yunho is great at handling things. Yunho was born to handle these kinds of things.”  
  
“You want me to just stand back and not do anything?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“No,” Kyuhyun insisted, shaking his head. “Maybe you can turn a blind eye to what the captain is doing, but I can’t.”  
  
Ryeowook clenched his hands in front of him, his anxiety growing by leaps and bounds. “I know they are young…and untested, but…but this is how people learn. It kinda makes sense.”  
  
A look of total disappointment showed on Kyuhyun’s face. “Who are you?”  
  
“What?”  
  
“You heard me…who the hell are you? Do I even know you anymore?”  
  
“Of course you know me.”  
  
“No, I don’t think I do…actually, I can’t recognize a lot of people lately, not since Leeteuk returned to his senses…or lack of senses and took over command of this ship.”  
  
“Kyuhyun, you have always known me…I am the same as I have always been…I am just worried for you.”  
  
“It’s not me who you need to worry about.”  
  
“I can’t help but worry about you,” Ryeowook explained. “The away team will be safe in the shuttle, much safer than the ones on the planet’s surface.”  
  
Kyuhyun look strained as he reminded the other man, “You do recall it was your captain who put the first away team at risk…against strong objections.”  
  
“He is your captain, too.”  
  
“He isn’t fit to command anything, much less this ship. If we were still in Federation space I would use every means at my disposal, including nepotism, to have him removed from command.”  
  
“Kyuhyun, you don’t mean that,” Ryeowook gasped, and took a step back. “You would never dream of using your connections.”  
  
“Oh, yes I would. He…he…I can’t even begin to describe the callous disregard he has shown for the safety and lives of others.”  
  
Ryeowook attempted to control his increasing anxiety. “I know it looks bad…but you have to let Yunho deal with it. Yunho can handle this.”  
  
“I will do whatever Yunho requires of me,” Kyuhyun informed his husband. “I have made it clear on repeated occasions that my loyalty is to him.”  
  
“Even if…even if…it’s mutiny?”  
  
Kyuhyun nodded his head.  
  
“No,” Ryeowook gasped. “There is no coming back from mutiny. Please, don’t do something you can’t take back. Captain Leeteuk has Sungmin and all of security firmly behind him…you will end up in the brig. I don’t want you in the brig.”  
  
“What does it matter if I am in the brig? We aren’t together anymore. We live apart and are married in name only.”  
  
“But…we have been working—”  
  
“For over a year we have been working on it…working and working on it and never accomplishing anything.”  
  
Ryeowook gently reminded his husband, “You are the one that is no longer attracted to me.”  
  
Kyuhyun closed his eyes, sat down on the sofa, and corrected his old lover, “Ryeowook, that wasn’t always true.”  
  
“It’s true now.”  
  
“But for a long time it wasn’t true. Before…before I was taken I wanted nothing more than to be with you. I was so happy you were alive, and I wanted nothing more than to be with you again. I did everything to earn your forgiveness, but you never gave it.”  
  
“I had a reason to be angry at you,” Ryeowook reminded his husband as he sat down beside him.  
  
“Yes, you always seem to have some reason to be disappointed or angry with me. Poor Ryeowook, married to lousy Kyuhyun with all his faults. It’s always my fault.”  
  
“No, that isn’t what I am saying…I am not blaming you,” Ryeowook said soothingly as he reached out and squeezed Kyuhyun’s knee. “I know we are both at fault…I should be more forgiving…I just…I’d miss you if you were in the brig.”  
  
Kyuhyun opened his eyes, turned to face his husband, and covered Ryeowook’s hand with is own. “Don’t you see…that even if we found that perfect, strong love we once shared…I would still have to stand with Yunho?”  
  
Ryeowook fought against the urge to break down in tears. “It’s still strong…it is.”  
  
“Ah, but it stopped being perfect a long time ago…it’s only about anger, punishment, and guilt now.”  
  
“No…no it isn’t.”  
  
“I will always love you…I know this. I don’t ever want to hurt you again…but I have to do what my conscience dictates. If I get thrown in the brig…then I will have at least acted in what I believe to be the best interest of this ship and crew. I may have once been a bully…but no longer. I want to protect those weaker than me…you helped to teach me this. I am the son of two of Star Fleet’s greatest admirals, and at times that has been a huge burden…but I am their child. I will stand by my Star Fleet oath.”  
  
Tears rolled down Ryeowook’s face, realizing he could not change the other man’s mind. “I just wish…things were different….I miss you so much.”  
  
“I feel like I have been missing you for years…for years, but I couldn’t live with myself if I stood by and sent mere children to the slaughter.”  
  
“Please, don’t say it like that.”  
  
“It’s the truth.”  
  
“Maybe he…maybe he is testing us. Maybe it is a test to see how far he can push…maybe he wants to see how loyal the crew is to him?” Ryeowook suggested, grasping at straws. “It could just be a test.”  
  
Kyuhyun squeezed Ryeowook’s hand. “Ryeowook, what is it about Leeteuk that makes normally intelligent people completely stupid? A test, really?”  
  
Ryeowook jerked his hand away. “I am not stupid…I just…he wasn’t always like this. He wasn’t!”  
  
“Well, he is now,” Kyuhyun responded, standing up to put distance between them. “If putting twelve lives at risk is how he performs his tests then he should not be a teacher, much less a captain of a star ship.”  
  
“What are you going to do?”  
  
“Something…I am not going to sit here and wring my hands. I can’t just—” the door chimed alerting them that someone wanted in. “Enter,” Kyuhyun ordered.  
  
Commander Jung walked into the room. “Kyuhyun, I need to speak with you.”  
  
Kyuhyun looked down at Ryeowook and with a voice tinged with sadness he stated, “You need to leave.”  
  
“Kyuhyun,” Ryeowook pleaded. “Don’t do something…something you can’t take back.”  
  
“Go,” Kyuhyun ordered firmly.  
  
“I don’t want to go,” Ryeowook said fearfully as he stood up.  
  
“You have to…I can’t trust you to be here.”  
  
Ryeowook flinched as if he had been slapped across the face. “You can’t trust me? Just because I disagree doesn’t mean I would ever betray you.”  
  
Kyuhyun shook his head. “It goes deeper than that. I don’t even know…who you are anymore…the man I used to love…he’d never stand for what Captain Leeteuk is doing. You would be up there on the bridge chewing him out and declaring him insane. You used to know right from wrong.”  
  
“I know he is  _wrong_! Okay! I know it! It isn’t my place to declare him insane! Only Heechul can do it!” Ryeowook exclaimed. “I just feel sorry for him…he wasn’t always like this! He isn’t a bad man!”  
  
Kyuhyun just continued to shake his head.  
  
Yunho stepped up to Ryeowook and laid his hands on the doctor’s shoulder. “Ryeowook, it is probably best that you aren’t here…for your own sake.”  
  
Ryeowook nodded his head but he couldn’t take his eyes off of his husband who looked so disappointed in him. “Kyuhyun, you know I wouldn’t…you know I would never betray you?”  
  
Kyuhyun sighed and asked, “Can you promise that?”  
  
“Yes!” Ryeowook pledged. “Of course I can promise that!”  
  
“Even if you thought that by betraying me you were helping me?” Kyuhyun asked, with a sad knowing look. “If you thought betraying me…meant saving me?”  
  
Ryeowook broke eye contact between them…he knew and hated that Kyuhyun was right. “I will go now.”  
  
Kyuhyun closed his eyes as Ryeowook left the room.  
  
“Commander, as much as I would like to give you time to mull over what just happened, we don’t have time to spare,” Yunho told him. “We have somebody we must talk to.”  
  
“Who?” Kyuhyun asked opening his eyes to look at Yunho.  
  
“Shindong.”  
  
  
****************  
  
  
Commanders Cho and Jung walked down the corridor toward the space trader’s quarters, both taking long strides. Yunho asked, “When was the last time you talked to him?”  
  
“It’s been awhile.”  
  
Yunho frowned, coming to a disturbing realization. “I haven’t seen him in weeks.”  
  
“Nor have I. I tried to get him to come and eat dinner with me and Ryeowook a few days ago but he declined,” Kyuhyun explained. “I have tried to keep in close contact with him due…”  
  
“I understand.” Yunho quickly answered after hearing the other man’s uncomfortable pause. Yunho could only imagine the horrors that Kyuhyun and Shindong had shared together while they had been held hostage by the Warlord ZhouMi. He knew Shindong had returned without his tongue or his legs, and he knew Kyuhyun’s scars went very deep.  
  
“He hasn’t even agreed to have coffee with me in weeks. In truth, I don’t remember the last time I saw him. I have only spoken with him over the combadge. Lately he insists he is consumed with the holodecks and doesn’t have time for chit chat.”  
  
Yunho frowned. “The holodecks can be very addictive.”  
  
“Very.”  
  
“I have been doing frequent patrols of the ship and I have never seen him…coming or going from the holosuites.”  
  
“That seems odd.”  
  
“It does seem highly unlikely.”  
  
“Do you think something has happened to him?”  
  
“I sincerely hope not,” Yunho told the other commander as they approached the door to Shindong’s quarters.  
  
The door did not automatically open.  
  
“Shindong, this is Commander Jung; I need to speak with you.”  
  
The door remained shut and Shindong’s voice from inside his quarters quickly replied, “No, I can’t see you. I am in the middle of something.”  
  
“In the middle of what?” Kyuhyun questioned.  
  
“Just something…something private.”  
  
“Shindong, we must speak with you,” Kyuhyun insisted.  
  
“I can’t…I can’t…” Shindong pleaded from the other side of the door. “Go away.”  
  
Yunho, sensing something in the trader’s voice, ordered, “Open.”  
  
Yunho frowned when the doors remained shut.  
  
“That’s odd,” Kyuhyun stated, feeling his own anxiety growing.  
  
“Computer, this is Commander Jung; open the doors to these quarters immediately.”  
  
“Commander Jung, you do not have proper authorization to enter these quarters,” the computer promptly answered.  
  
“I don’t,” Yunho responded in disbelief but quickly added, “Who does have proper authority?”  
  
The computer punctually replied, “Captain Leeteuk, Dr. Kim Heechul, Commander Ji-Hoon.”  
  
Yunho frowned and hit his insignia. “Commander Yoochun.”  
  
“You called?” was Yoochun’s immediate response from engineering.  
  
“The captain has Shindong sealed behind locked doors in his quarters and I am forbidden entrance…I need them to open.”  
  
“Understood,” Yoochun replied and the doors immediately opened.  
  
Yunho and Kyuhyun walked in to find Shindong lounging on his bed in his underwear. He jumped off the bed and proclaimed, “Thank God! I am free at last!”  
  
“Why were you being held in here?” Yunho demanded, looking around the quarters that were in total disarray.  
  
“How long have you been locked up?” Kyuhyun asked, looking at the state of his friend.  
  
Shindong, who was so happy to see new faces, walked up and hugged Commander Cho tightly. “For too freaking long…I think it’s been three weeks, now.”  
  
“For three weeks you have been held…did you have a trial that I was not aware of?” Yunho demanded.  
  
“Hell, no!” Shindong exclaimed, letting go of Kyuhyun. “I am not even sure what I did wrong.”  
  
Yunho, who was looking more displeased by the second, questioned, “Nobody explained to you why you were being held prisoner?”  
  
“Nope,” Shindong answered. “That new captain is a piece of work. He just let me know if I told anybody about my imprisonment…I’d find myself back in ZhouMi’s hands.”  
  
Kyuhyun stilled, horrified.  
  
Yunho exhaled slowly and asked, “Do you have any idea why he locked you away? Did you say something? Did you see something?”  
  
Shindong nodded his head. “I might have asked him why we kept visiting planets known for having lost Joong artifacts on them. I wasn’t accusing him of anything…I was merely curious.”  
  
Relief washed over Yunho’s face as the missing pieces to the puzzle fell into place for him. “The planets that the captain says we are randomly visiting…they are known to have Joong artifacts on them?”  
  
“Yep,” Shindong eagerly agreed. “Of course, people have been trying to collect them for centuries.”  
  
“I knew it,” Yunho proclaimed. “I knew he was searching for something.”  
  
“You were right,” Kyuhyun told him. “But why does Captain Leeteuk want Joong artifacts?”  
  
“Because everybody does…they are ancient Joong artifacts…they are like the necklace and the stones. They were made long ago and have mysterious powers,” Shindong explained.  
  
“Do you know what the artifacts are capable of?” Yunho asked.  
  
“Just rumors…nobody knows for sure…well, your mate might if he was shown one, but I doubt it. They were made and lost long before he was born and there are a lot of them,” Shindong explained.  
  
“What do the rumors say they do?” Yunho questioned.  
  
“Just crazy stuff.”  
  
“Give me an example,” Yunho insisted. “I need examples.”  
  
“The kind of stuff that could make you invisible, transport you anywhere in the universe, turn you into animals, give you the ability to fly, and destroy planets and stars.”  
  
Yunho was unable to hide his surprise. “Stars?”  
  
“Like I said, it was crazy stuff…why would anyone want to destroy a star? It would be suicidal,” Shindong stated.  
  
“Not if you could transport anywhere in the universe,” Yunho reminded him. “Do you not recall that three stars went supernova on the outskirts of our universe not too long ago?”  
  
Shindong paled. “Now that you mention it…”  
  
“Jaejoong once said that not all Joong were peace lovers in the past…that some had to be controlled,” Yunho stated. “That is the reason he gave for the necklaces even existing.”  
  
“Why would the captain be looking for ancient weapons that could possibly have belonged to rogue Joongs?” Kyuhyun asked, quickly catching on.  
  
Yunho looked at the two men and said confidently, “I believe that once we discover the answer to that question, everything will become clear.”  
  
“But how would he even know where to look? Shindong asked, looking at Yunho. “He’s human, like you…actually, not like you. You are at least bonded to a Joong. I highly doubt he’s ever seen another Joong. How would a human from your galaxy even know where to look?”  
  
A look of complete understanding appeared on Yunho’s face, “I’ve been a fool. He isn’t—”  
  
“Commanders!” Shindong exclaimed as Yunho and Kyuhyun were beamed away from his quarters.  
  
*******************  
  
  
“Welcome to the brig, fellow commanders,” Yoochun said, greeting Yunho and Kyuhyun after they materialized in front of him. “I apologize for the lack of refreshments.”  
  
“The brig,” Yunho practically growled, while taking in his surroundings. The three of them were inside a small detention area aboard the ship.  
  
“Yes, it appears we are under arrest…although, I don’t remember being arrested,” Yoochun told them.  
  
“Neither do I,” Yunho told the engineer, looking more irritated by the second as he hit his insignia and got no response.  
  
“Yeah, the combadges don’t work in here,” Yoochun reminded the captain.  
  
“Did they beam you here also?” Kyuhyun asked Commander Yoochun.  
  
“That they did,” Yoochun answered as he backed up against the wall and slowly slid down it to sit on the floor. “They didn’t even warn me…which was very smart of them.”  
  
Yunho glared out through the force field that was holding them inside the cell and noticed a young ensign standing guard outside.  
  
“Ensign DongWoo, come here,” Yunho ordered.  
  
The young ensign quickly approached his former captain. “Yes, Sir…”  
  
“Let me out of here, now!”  
  
“Sir…”  
  
“Now!” Yunho commanded loudly and the ensign jumped and quickly headed to the control panel to release the prisoners.  
  
“Stop!” Lieutenant Sungmin ordered from behind the young ensign before DongWoo could release the commanders. “Ensign DongWoo, return to your quarters.”  
  
The young ensign turned to face the security chief. “But Sir…”  
  
“Go to your quarters, ensign…I will handle this,” Sungmin said, directing the young ensign that was under his command. “You are dismissed.”  
  
“Lieutenant, release us,” Yunho demanded.  
  
Sungmin watched as DongWoo exited the security department before turning to face Yunho. “I can’t do that, Commander.”  
  
“And why not?”  
  
“The captain has ordered you be held here.”  
  
“On what charges?”  
  
“Commander Jung, I think you are well aware of what charges you are being held here for.”  
  
“No, Lieutenant I do not. I have not been officially accused and I was brought here against my will. Do you want me to recite how many regulations have been broken in the last five minutes alone?”  
  
“Sir, with all due respect, you broke into Shindong’s quarters, overriding several security measures,” Sungmin pointed out to the disgruntled former captain.  
  
“And he is also being held unlawfully,” Yunho maintained. “Lieutenant Sungmin, I am ordering you to release me from this cell, now.”  
  
Sungmin swallowed nervously and placed his hands behind his back. “Sir, I regretfully inform you…I can not.”  
  
Yunho’s eyes drilled into the lieutenant and he questioned, “Are you deliberately disobeying me?”  
  
“Sir, I do not wish to disobey you…believe me I do not, but I am following the captain’s orders.”  
  
“Tell me Lieutenant Sungmin, have you always had so little personal integrity—a sense of justice that is so fleeting you can willingly break Federation laws on the whim of your commanders?” Yunho asked in cold voice.  
  
Sungmin blinked.  
  
“Answer me, Lieutenant!”  
  
“Sir, that is…I am not doing that,” Sungmin replied, rubbing his hands together nervously behind his back.  
  
Yunho glared at his former Security Chief and said with unflinching certainty, “That is exactly what you are doing, Lieutenant. This is the last time I will ask you to release us.”  
  
“I…I can not.”  
  
“Then you leave me no choice,” Yunho stated, looking away from Sungmin as if he found the sight of him distasteful, “Computer, this is Commander Jung of the Starship Expectations. I officially charge Captain Leeteuk and Lieutenant Sungmin with the wrongful imprisonment of myself, Commander Cho, Commander Yoochun, and Shindong. I also charge Captain Leeteuk with unlawful use of the transporters. I continue to charge Captain Leeteuk with violating Federation directive 17.5, directive, 45.4, and directive 78.4. I further charge Captain Leeteuk with the harassment of myself, Commander Cho, and Commander Yoochun. And finally I most adamantly charge Captain Leeteuk with reckless endangerment of the crew on repeated occasions. I demand a full Star Fleet hearing to be held in a neutral place of my choosing.”  
  
“Charges noted and filed, Commander Jung,” the computer immediately replied.  
  
Lieutenant Sungmin just stared at Yunho, speechless.  
  
Yunho turned back to face the security chief his displeasure still easily seen. “Lieutenant Sungmin, get out of my sight!”  
  
“Yes, Sir,” Sungmin jumped, obeying the former captain.  
  
  
**********************  
  
“You just had to go and wake him up early,” Ensign Jonghyun complained as he and Dr. Nam trailed behind Ensigns SungGyu and Eunhyuk as they followed a frozen stream up the mountain.  
  
“Well, if you two had stopped gossiping for longer than five seconds I wouldn’t have been so irritated.”  
  
“We weren’t gossiping.”  
  
“Yes, you were.”  
  
“Maybe a little.”  
  
WooHyun looked at the frozen stream, deciding to change the topic. The stream was approximately six meters across and they had just arrived to what appeared to be a deep pool where a waterfall had once emptied into the stream before it had frozen over. “It looks like the stream froze instantly while it was busy rolling down the mountain. It’s a beautiful sight.”  
  
“On Earth there are huge waterfalls that completely freeze over in the winter.”  
  
“Where I grew up we didn’t have waterfalls.”  
  
“You never saw a waterfall?”  
  
“I lived in a really flat area on my home planet,” WooHyun explained, looking at the waterfall of ice. “I just never got around to checking one out on the other planets I’ve been to.”  
  
Jonghyun looked up towards the top of the mountain that was getting nearer and nearer. “Earth has flat areas and great mountains. I am glad this mountain isn’t as tall as some of them on Earth.”  
  
“It’s tall enough.”  
  
“Yeah, but it could be like Mount Everest.”  
  
WooHyun shook his head and reminded the ensign, “You realize I have no idea about Mount Everest or how tall it is.”  
  
“It’s tall. It’s over 8800 meters tall.”  
  
“Then I am also glad this mountain is not like it.”  
  
SungGyu, who was getting farther and farther in front of them, turned around and yelled, “You two need to speed it up. The mountain is starting to get steep. We have to stay close. We can’t afford to be separated.”  
  
“You couldn’t get rid of me if you tried,” WooHyun teased. He had purposely been going slowly, so as not to leave Ensign Jonghyun behind. The transporter ensign was really not in condition to hike up mountains.  
  
SungGyu just shook his head and turned back around and continued on his journey.  
  
“When I get back to the ship I am going to exercise more,” Jonghyun vowed.  
  
“Do you not exercise now?” WooHyun asked curiously. He knew there was an exercise mandate for all crew members.  
  
Jonghyun blushed and admitted, “I’ve been slacking lately. My physical is not due for another six weeks. I usually start brushing up a month before it is due.”  
  
WooHyun grinned. “You do know you just admitted that to the wrong person?”  
  
“Oh, c’mon,” Jonghyun pleased. “Don’t tell Dr. Cho or Dr. Kim…I thought we were pals.”  
  
“We are friends, but I am a doctor first and foremost.”  
  
Jonghyun pointed to Eunhyuk and SungGyu in front of him. “I can’t be like them. I mean, I am a transporter tech. I don’t like exercise. It was never my intention to go on away missions and climb snow covered mountains.”  
  
“I assure you, Ensign SungGyu’s main hobby in life is sleeping. He doesn’t like exercise anymore than you do, but he does it…and so must you.”  
  
“What about you?”  
  
WooHyun smirked. “I could have been to the top of this mountain already. I am perfectly fit.”  
  
“So why are you lagging back here with me?”  
  
“Somebody had to,” the doctor told him. “Plus, I didn’t want you to be alone with your thoughts. I don’t want you to start thinking crazy thoughts like those red shirt thoughts you had—duck!”  
  
“The Jex!” Jonghyun screamed out as WooHyun pushed him to the ground. A swarm of flying spiders the size of bats swarmed out from the surrounding rocks encircling them. Jonghyun reached for the phaser he had been issued with shaky, unsteady hands. The creatures were so thick they blocked the sunlight and he couldn’t see what he was doing. He jerked in fear as he felt them land on him. He manically swung his arms out knocking the Jex away.  
  
And then he felt nothing…not fear…not anything.


	4. The Jex

It had all happened too quickly, Eunhyuk thought.  
  
One moment he was moving up the mountain alongside Ensign SungGyu; the next the high pitched screams of Ensign Jonghyun had alerted them something was very wrong.  
  
Eunhyuk turned around to find the other two crewmembers surrounded by a swarm…yes, a swarm of flying spiders.  
  
“The Jex!” SungGyu shouted as if it were the worst curse word he knew. The younger man had his phaser out, and was running toward the swarm before Eunhyuk had even caught his breath, much less moved.  
  
Eunhyuk quickly followed suit, pulling out his phaser. He had never fired a phaser outside of practice drills. As he raced after SungGyu toward the swarm, he could not imagine what they could do to save the other two men, not if the poison was as deadly as they had been told. How could they possibly shoot the Jex without hitting Jonghyun and Dr. Nam?  
  
SungGyu raised his phaser and fired a wide range stun beam, dropping everything in its path.  
  
“Of course,” Eunhyuk muttered under his breath as he raced with SungGyu to the fallen crewmembers. Stunning Jonghyun, Dr. Nam, and the Jex was the only option they had.  
  
Eunhyuk and SungGyu reached the fallen crew members at the same time. Eunhyuk knelt down beside Jonghyun and searched for a pulse. He quickly found a strong and steady pulse. He looked Jonghyun over and found no bites from the Jex. “I think he is just stunned.”  
  
“Damn!”  
  
Eunhyuk looked up from Jonghyun to see SungGyu pull the med-kit away from Dr. Nam and run it over the man’s pale, limp body. Eunhyuk dropped Jonghyun’s wrist and reached over to feel WooHyun’s neck, searching for his carotid pulse. The doctor’s skin was cool and clammy to the touch. Eunhyuk was barely able to find the pulse; it was weak and thready. On the side of the doctor’s face was a large welt that seemed to be getting bigger by the second.  
  
“He’s not breathing,” Eunhyuk told SungGyu in a strangely calm voice; years of Star Fleet drills had done their job. Eunhyuk knew the doctor’s time was running out. He repositioned the doctor’s neck and got ready to start breathing for him.  
  
SungGyu tossed the useless med-kit away. He pulled out his phaser, adjusted the settings and fired toward the frozen stream at what appeared to be its deepest point.  
  
Eunhyuk watched as the water instantly melted.  
“Help me get him in the water,” SungGyu commanded.  
  
The navigator was instantly up, helping the other ensign carry the lifeless doctor to the water. Eunhyuk was amazed at how strong he felt as he helped SungGyu lower the doctor into the water.  
  
“He has to sink,” SungGyu shouted as they pushed the doctor down into the water. Once the doctor was completely emerged SungGyu grabbed Eunhyuk and pulled him back to the bank with him. Then he pulled out his phaser, adjusted the settings again, and fired once more at the icy water, watching impassively as the ice reformed.  
  
Eunhyuk, who had not questioned anything, stared down at the frozen ice. “What did we just do?”  
  
“Hopefully, we bought him enough time,” SungGyu explained, wiping his brow. “If we can keep him frozen…until we get the shield down, the Expectations might… _will_ be able to save him. The med-kits are as useless as the tricorders here.”  
  
Eunhyuk looked up at the Fortress of Snow at the mountain’s peak. “Another reason we must succeed.”  
  
“Yes,” SungGyu agreed as he knelt down by Jonghyun. “Also, if the Jex are stirring…we have no time to waste. Help me revive him. Time is running out.”  
  
  
********************  
  
  
Ryeowook walked into sickbay keen on distracting himself with work. He wanted to focus on anything but the path Kyuhyun was set to embark on. He was also eager to divert his attention from the distance he and his husband had between them now. That they had drifted so far apart… _so far apart_  that Kyuhyun didn’t even trust him stung.  
  
He looked around the empty sickbay and he prayed it remained empty…and not filled with the bodies of the young crewmembers the captain had knowingly sent into harm’s way. He hated the traitorous thoughts floating around inside his mind, but he couldn’t deny them. Yunho and Kyuhyun were right to be upset.  
  
Ryeowook strolled through sickbay but came to a stop as he caught movement in Sulli’s room at the back of sickbay out of the corner of his eye. He moved towards it expecting to find Lieutenant SooYoung, but instead found Heechul standing over the young girl with a familiar look of affection on his face.  
  
“Still fond of her?”  
  
Heechul turned around to face the other doctor. “What?”  
  
Ryeowook walked closer to the bed and pointed at Sulli. “You were very attached to her…in your former state.”  
  
“In my demented state.”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
Heechul looked back down at the sleeping girl. “And you think I still am?”  
  
“You were looking at her fondly, or it at least looked that way to me.”  
  
“Was it fondly or compassionately?” Heechul asked to clarify, his tone sounding strangely curious.  
  
“All doctors have compassion…or all good doctors have compassion. I thought I saw affection in your expression…fondness.”  
  
Heechul reached down and trailed a finger across the surface of the bed. “I was a compassionate doctor?”  
  
“Of course.”  
  
“And even in my demented state…I was fond of this girl?”  
  
“Yes,” Ryeowook answered uneasily. “Is something wrong?”  
  
Heechul shook his head, his eyes still glued to Sulli. “No.”  
  
“You just seem…off.”  
  
Heechul met Ryeowook’s gaze. “Do I?”  
  
“Yes, but feeling affection for Sulli…that seems right.”  
  
Heechul looked back down at the girl. “She was held against her will, raped and beaten for over a year…perhaps, even in a demented state I could find my compassion for such a wounded soul.”  
  
“If anyone could…it would be you.”  
  
“This brain is highly evolved,” Heechul agreed. “Perhaps, it should not ever be underestimated…its power…its capacity for compassion.”  
  
“This brain…”  
  
Heechul quickly explained, “My brain, of course; Changmin was the only one that could compete with my intelligence, but now we know he was no mere human. Ensign Henry is highly intelligent in certain areas, but he lacks the overall intelligence Changmin and I shared.”  
  
Ryeowook looked doubtful. “I don’t think Changmin got his intelligence from Jaejoong.”  
  
“Doctor…dear doctor,” Heechul guffawed unable to hide his amusement at the younger doctor’s words. “I am sure Jaejoong is much more intelligent than he seems to be. Appearing intelligent is not…is not a great priority for those who are naturally superior.”  
  
“Then what about Changmin?” Ryeowook asked curiously. “He loved reminding us of how smart he was.”  
  
“Changmin was the exception to many rules.”  
  
“True,” Ryeowook agreed looking down to Sulli. “Do you think she will awaken when Changmin is born?”  
  
Heechul tensed. “Is that the theory?”  
  
“Just one,” Ryeowook answered. “I don’t put much faith in it.”  
  
“Dr. Cho, I wouldn’t spread that theory around if I were you,” Heechul told Ryeowook without answering the question.  
  
Ryeowook frowned. “You wouldn’t?”  
  
“No,” Heechul answered as he turned to leave the room. “Not in times like these.”  
  
Ryeowook followed after Heechul and asked, “Why have you not declared Captain Leeteuk unfit for command.”  
  
Heechul stopped in his tracks and turned back around to face Ryeowook. “He is not unfit.”  
  
“Is he not?”  
  
“No, he is completely sane.”  
  
“Then why is he making such poor choices?”  
  
Heechul shook his head and explained, “Doctor, just because you do not agree with his choices does not make him insane. This ship is not a democracy, we do not follow a majority vote.”  
  
“I know…aren’t you upset that so many lives are at risk?”  
  
“Yes, I am…I find it very unsettling…actually.”  
  
  
****************  
  
  
Yoochun’s eyes never left Yunho, who was standing as close to the force field as he could get, glaring out at the empty security department. “Next time you are not allowed to talk.”  
  
Yunho didn’t turn around or acknowledge Yoochun had spoken.  
  
“Seriously, you went all Prince of Joong on him…or are you the Princess of Joong?”  
  
Yunho remained silent.  
  
Kyuhyun, who was leaning against the wall, fought to keep from smiling as he looked down at Yoochun, who was sitting on the floor beside him. “Are you going to do the talking next time?”  
  
“No, you are sugar lips,” Yoochun told Commander Cho. “Sungmin would have been putty in our hands if you had sweet talked him.”  
  
Commander Cho rolled his eyes. “I highly doubt that.”  
  
“It’s true…we would have already been out of here.”  
  
“I believe the days of me being able to sweet talk our Security Chief are long past,” Kyuhyun told the engineer. Kyuhyun had not forgotten the beating he had received at the hands of Sungmin not long ago.  
  
“You are wrong.”  
  
“Is he not in a relationship with the Prince Siwon?”  
  
Yoochun shook his head. “Oh, the prince doesn’t really favor dick, but he likes being celibate less. Once the prince woos Lieutenant SooYoung into his bed—his time with Sungmin will be a thing of memory.”  
  
“You are a real asshole.”  
  
“It’s the truth,” Yoochun maintained. “I hope the little traitor is listening in on this conversation, because let me assure him he is a straight man’s poor substitute for a woman…and for a woman like Lieutenant SooYoung—he’s no substitute at all.”  
  
“Yoochun…” Commander Cho warned.  
  
“It’s true. I am as bisexual as they come…but damn, I’d toss many a man aside for the pleasure of sliding my hands up those very long---perfect legs. I could write many a song about the flawlessness of those legs. I can’t say I blame the prince at all…not at all.”  
  
“Yoochun,” Yunho snapped, not turning around. “Can you make some attempt to act in a slightly professional manner?”  
  
Yoochun held up his hands. “We are prisoners. I am just getting into my role. I am going to be the twisted, nasty prisoner that all the young boys fear.”  
  
Kyuhyun’s expression darkened and he walked to the opposite side of the detention cell.  
  
“You are purposely antagonizing Lieutenant Sungmin,” Yunho informed the engineer.  
  
“Yeah,” Yoochun confirmed with a grin. “Don’t act like you care…I heard it in your voice. You are done with Lieutenant Sungmin. I have seen this before.”  
  
“Don’t.”  
  
“Yunho, I am not judging you,” Yoochun informed the former captain. “You Jung boys have your limits when it comes to people. Changmin, he only allows for a certain amount of stupidity when dealing with others, but  _your_  limit has to do with honor.”  
  
“I am not done with anyone.”  
  
Yoochun smiled fondly at Yunho. “When you get the ship back… _and you will get the ship back_ …Sungmin will no longer be the chief of security.”  
  
Yunho turned around and stared down at the engineer. “You think you know me so well?”  
  
Yoochun clutched his chest. “I do and I am so happy for Kangin. He finally gets to move up in the universe.”  
  
“You are certain of this?”  
  
“Yunho, I know you better than any man…well, any man who does not have the benefit of telepathy…but honestly, most the time I think I know you better than your bondmate.”  
  
“You think so…”  
  
“Yep, and it is because I know you so well that I’d follow you to hell and back—or the brig.”  
  
Yunho smiled. “So you would follow me to hell?”  
  
Yoochun met Yunho’s gaze and confirmed, “Anywhere. I know my path is best served with you. I just wish…”  
  
“You wish what?” Yunho prompted.  
  
“That one of us would have fucking thought to cut the power to the damn transporters,” Yoochun wistfully told his oldest friend.  
  
Yunho let out a sigh and nodded his head. “You and me both.”  
  
  
**************************  
  
  
“If I make it out of here alive, I am going to kill them both.”  
  
Minho, who was tied to a wooden pole beside the angry older ensign, asked, “Them both?”  
  
“Yes, I am going to kill Lieutenant Yesung and then the captain….right after I kill all these little fuckers,” Kangin vowed as he glared at the villagers who were busying themselves with what they were calling The Great Blood Sacrifice.  
  
“I did repeatedly question the logic in feasting with a people who admit to worshipping the Blood God when the Jex are known for sucking their victims dry of blood.”  
  
“Yes, we know,” Yesung snapped from the other side of Minho. After feasting the night before, all of Yesung’s away team had awakened to find themselves stripped nude, paralyzed, and tied to poles topped by totems of the Jex in the middle of the village. The elders of the village had regretfully informed them they would be sacrificed in an attempt to appease the Jex and spare the village. “You were right, okay? You were right! I was an idiot! Now, think of a way to get us out of here.”  
  
“I remain mostly paralyzed and unable to move my extremities and even speaking proves to be difficult. Escape at this time seems very unlikely,” Minho informed the lieutenant. “The paralytic they slipped to us during the feast is most affective,” Minho reminded Lieutenant Yesung. “At this time, I see no chance for escape.”  
  
Yesung looked to his opposite side where the young ensign beside him could only blink his eyes and was unable to speak. “I know…some of us have not even regained the use of our tongues.”  
  
“I also voiced my objection to eating food that had not been scanned by a functional tricorder,” Minho reminded the other lieutenant.  
  
Kangin nodded his head remembering Minho’s warnings. “You need to be more like Changmin when he suggested something—”  
  
“You listened to Changmin because Captain Jung made you listen…he did not so easily disregard the advice of the science department,” Minho finished, sounding miffed.  
  
“I was going to say Changmin made you feel stupider than Rictulim Scum if you did not follow his advice.”  
  
“True,” Minho conceded. “I never mastered that aspect of my mentor’s personality.”  
  
“To be honest, Changmin was always like that. I remember when Yunho, Yoochun and I were first years and we would have small holidays from the academy, Yunho would take us back to his house. His mom was a real peach, but Changmin had a mouth on him even then. I wish I’d known back then it was separation anxiety from being away from daddy…I would have loved to give him hell for it.” Kangin grinned just imagining the indignant look Changmin would have given him.  
  
“I wish Changmin had been here yesterday,” Yesung admitted with a sigh.  
  
“Me too,” Kangin said wistfully.  
  
“Lieutenant Jung would never have agreed to come on such an ill-advised mission,” Minho pointed out.  
  
“Very true,” Kangin concurred.  
  
“Wish I had not agreed to it,” Yesung conceded.  
  
“Maybe the Golden Boy will save us yet,” Kangin said wistfully.  
  
Minho cast his eyes up toward the top of the mountain where the great fortress stood. “It is highly doubtful. The villagers have reported seeing the Jex in the wooded areas surrounding the mountain…Ensign SungGyu’s team will be in the midst of them.”  
  
“I hope you are wrong,” Yesung confided. “I really hope you are wrong.”  
  
“As do I,” Minho confessed. “But if the bite of the Jex is as poisonous as the villagers claim then success would prove extremely unlikely.”  
  
“I thought they paralyzed you and then sucked your blood?” Kangin asked, confused.  
  
“They do and what the villagers used on us is no doubt a much diluted dose of the Jex’s powerful paralytic. Undiluted, the Jex paralytic is much stronger and humans can only live for a few minutes after being bitten. Their hearts and lungs would quickly cease to function.”  
  
“And we are being sacrificed to them,” Yesung said, groaning.  
  
“Yes,” Minho confirmed. “The villagers hope when the Jex descend on this village they will take us as an offering and spare the village…which is very unlikely.”  
  
“Can either of you two move your fingers?” Yesung asked, unable to hide his increasing panic.  
  
“Nope,” Kangin answered.  
  
“No,” Minho replied.  
  
Yesung sighed and shut his eyes. “Then I fear we are doomed.”  
  
Kangin disagreed, “Nah, I wouldn’t count Yunho out just yet.”  
  
“Yunho…isn’t in command,” Yesung pointed out, and then reluctantly added. “He can only save us…if Captain Leeteuk allows him to do so.”  
  
Kangin smiled and stared up at the mountain, “No, I think Yunho was working on our rescue plan even before we left, and I wouldn’t count his golden boy out just yet either.”  
  
  
*******************  
  
“Enter,” Jaejoong said, responding to the door chime alerting him to the fact that somebody wanted in his quarters.  
  
“Jaejoong!” Ryeowook exclaimed in a panicked voice as he entered the large quarters that Yunho and Jaejoong shared.  
  
The Joong, who had been resting, awkwardly sat up in bed after hearing the alarm in his friend’s voice. “What’s happened now?”  
  
Ryeowook barged into the bedroom, out of breath and waving his arms in the air. “Don’t panic!”  
  
Jaejoong watched the doctor, who was obviously panicking, while he rubbed his large belly. “I am fine, Changmin is fine, and Yunho is fine…why would I panic?”  
  
“Yunho is fine?”  
  
“Yes, the bond says he is fine…I can’t telepathically connect to him but I know his health is fine…why are you questioning it?”  
  
“Ummm…Yunho is in the brig.”  
  
“Isn’t that like jail?”  
  
“Yes,” Ryeowook responded. “He’s in jail with my estranged husband…who doesn’t trust me, and Commander Yoochun.”  
  
Jaejoong got off the bed as gracefully as he could manage, which wasn’t graceful at all. “I can understand Commander Yoochun ending up in jail…but my Yunho? Why is my Yunho in jail?”  
  
“They haven’t been charged with anything yet…and I only know they are in the brig because someone from security told me. Apparently he…he was going to let Yunho out, but Sungmin dismissed him before he could do it.”  
  
“Sungmin has Yunho in jail?”  
  
“Yes, on Leeteuk’s orders. Nobody knows though, if the person from security had not told me…I would not know. I tried to see them but they won’t allow visitors in there”  
  
Jaejoong let out a growl and headed out of the bedroom. “The number of ingrates aboard this ship is astoundingly large.”  
  
“They haven’t charged them, like I said…which is not customary. You can’t just lock up officers without charging them,” Ryeowook said in disbelief as he followed Jaejoong out of the cabin.  
  
“There is nothing to charge them with! Yunho has done nothing wrong.”  
  
“I don’t know…” Ryeowook paused, not wanting to voice his suspicions. “Nobody has charged them but Yunho has charged Captain Leeteuk with a multitude of wrong doings…along with Lieutenant Sungmin. From the charges against them…it appears the captain and Sungmin have been holding Shindong against his will for weeks.”  
  
Jaejoong headed down the corridor toward the lifts, not saying anything as Ryeowook continued to rattle on.  
  
“Also they beamed them to the brig…from on the ship. That is dangerous and forbidden. I can’t believe they would do that…although, they were probably scared of Yoochun. If Yoochun had got wind of their plan he could hold the whole ship hostage. Everybody knows Yoochun is only loyal to Yunho and apparently my husband is only loyal to Yunho, too.”  
  
Jaejoong entered the lift and ordered for it to take them to the bridge.  
  
“Why are we going to the bridge?” Ryeowook asked, alarmed.  
  
“I am going to confront the…the _captain_  directly,” Jaejoong informed the doctor. “I have had enough of this childish behavior. It’s so frustrating having to be told what is going on.”  
  
“I can only imagine,” Ryeowook told the Joong, imagining how difficult it must be for a person who normally could read minds like other people use their senses of hearing and sight to lose the ability.  
  
The doors to the lift opened and Jaejoong stepped onto the bridge and every eye was on him. He immediately headed for Leeteuk, who sat in the center of the bridge in the captain’s chair. “Lackluster human, explain to me why you are holding my mate against his will?”  
  
The crew, who had not heard of Yunho’s arrest, let out a collective gasp of surprise.  
  
Commander Ji-Hoon, who sat beside Captain Leeteuk, informed Jaejoong, “I don’t believe you have permission to be on the bridge.”  
  
“I don’t believe I asked for permission, nor do I require it.”  
  
A shocked Ensign Junsu turned around in his seat at the helm to look at the captain. “Why? Why is Cap…Commander Jung being held?”  
  
“That’s what I am trying to find out,” Jaejoong informed the ensign without taking his eyes off Captain Leeteuk.  
  
Dr. Cho added, “Also Kyuhyun and Commander Yoochun are being held in the brig.”  
  
Jaejoong’s eyes drilled into the captain’s, who just smiled back to him. “Yes, the three men this weak specimen of humanity find most intimidating are all locked away.”  
  
“My dear Jaejoong, you insult me. Tell me, has your telepathy returned?” Leeteuk asked as he stood up. “Are you able to see into my mind?”  
  
With a look of utter disdain, Jaejoong informed the captain, “I don’t require telepathy to spot your weaknesses…they are glaringly obvious to those of us that are more evolved than the average amoeba.”  
  
Lieutenant Sungmin, who had been standing quietly at the back of the bridge, stepped forward. “Jaejoong, that was entirely inappropriate.”  
  
“Hush, peasant,” Jaejoong snapped at the security chief as he held up his hand in Sungmin’s direction.  
  
Sungmin opened his mouth to respond, but Leeteuk shook his head stopping him. “It’s alright, Sungmin. I want to hear about my glaring weaknesses. What are they?” Leeteuk asked, looking truly interested in what Jaejoong had to say.  
  
“Release Yunho and we will both tell you,” Jaejoong told the captain with a wicked smile.  
  
Leeteuk smiled just as wickedly back to at the Joong. “You tell me first.”  
  
Jaejoong tilted his head and peered closely at Leeteuk and carefully explained, “There is something…terribly unethical about you…cruel…criminal. I have an instinctive dislike of you…which oddly, I did not have when you were a brainless, nude shell of a human being.”  
  
“Is that so?” Leeteuk asked, remaining nonchalant.  
  
Jaejoong gaze shifted to Commander Ji-Hoon, who fidgeted underneath Jaejoong’s scrutiny, and added, “Yes; I feel the same way towards him. There is something not right about you two…and even Doctor Kim is surprisingly more repugnant, now. Why is that?”  
  
“Lieutenant Sungmin, escort Jaejoong to visit Commander Jung and the others,” Captain Leeteuk ordered his calm exterior remaining intact. “Please assure Commander Jung that I am sure it is all a terrible misunderstanding and I will be down to resolve the situation shortly.”  
  
“I am going with him,” Ryeowook declared.  
  
“Of course, Doctor,” Captain Leeteuk told them as he sat back down in the captain’s chair looking unperturbed to all who saw him.  
  
  
**********  
  
  
Eunhyuk looked out on the graveyard of skeletons that covered the landscape surrounding the stone fortress that towered above them. They had made it up to the mountain’s peak in record time. The three of them had moved as one with one goal in mind. The complaining that had filled the first part of their journey had completely disappeared as they raced to save Doctor Nam and all the other helpless souls trapped underneath the shield. They had easily dealt with the Jex that had appeared on their journey both swiftly and efficiently, but their unease rose with the increasing number of Jex sightings.  
  
“It really is a puzzle…a puzzle,” Ensign Jonghyun said in disbelief while shaking his head as he read the warning again that was carved into the great door of the fortress. “That we made it here…isn’t enough. We have to solve a puzzle.”  
  
Eunhyuk, whose eyes were on the skeletons of the beings who had come before them, stated, “And it is not an easy puzzle.”  
  
“No, not easy,” Jonghyun agreed.  
  
“So many failed…to solve the puzzle,” Eunhyuk stated, rubbing his arms feeling a chill even through the insulated clothing he wore.  
  
“These bones, are they all from beings that live on his planet?” Jonghyun questioned, pointing to the skeletons that were different shapes and sizes.  
  
“No, I don’t think so,” Eunhyuk answered as he looked at one extremely large skeleton that had unusually large teeth. “I just hope if anything like that one is on the planet…they are far away and they stay far away.”  
  
“What kind of prize is worth so much that so many people threw their lives away to get it? What could it…” Jonghyun paused as he heard Ensign SungGyu discharge his phaser. “What is he doing?”  
  
“I don’t see any Jex,” Eunhyuk stated as he hurried in the direction of Ensign SungGyu, who was outside the fortress’s gates.  
  
Jonghyun followed after Eunhyuk as they hurried to Ensign SungGyu. He had a carved out a shallow cave in a huge rock that faced out from the mountain. He looked at them and explained, “This spot seemed the safest.”  
  
“Safest for what?” Ensign Jonghyun asked, confused.  
  
“I want you two to wait here for me. If the Jex appear again, you can take turns with the phasers protecting yourself. The dome’s force field is not strong enough to withstand a major Jex attack. This way, they will only have one way of getting to you. With the phasers you should be safe. You just have to take turns shooting at them. The phasers don’t have an endless energy supply, but they will last a really long time if you are careful with them.”  
  
Eunhyuk blinked, stunned by what he realized the other ensign was implying. “You are going in there…in there by yourself?”  
  
SungGyu nodded his head. “Yes, it’s the smartest course of action.”  
  
“It’s suicide!” Jonghyun protested immediately. “It’s probably suicide if we all go in there…but to go alone…that’s crazy!”  
  
“It’s not suicide,” SungGyu said, objecting. “It’s the best chance we have.”  
  
“And if you don’t come back?” Eunhyuk asked at a loss. “What do we do if you don’t come back?”  
  
SungGyu met Eunhyuk’s gaze. “Then you have to decide for yourself if you are going to complete the mission. I can’t make you do anything...but if I don’t come back…the success of the mission…the lives of so many will rest on your shoulders.”  
  
Eunhyuk swallowed nervously, never wanting such a burden placed on him. “Maybe we should just wait…the Expectations could still save us.”  
  
“I don’t think so,” SungGyu told the older ensign. “I think we have to save ourselves.”  
  
Eunhyuk looked up at the sky and remembered Junsu’s warnings. “Were we ever expected to survive this mission or were we doomed from the start?”  
  
SungGyu reached out and grabbed Eunhyuk tightly by the wrist, making him look him in the eye. “We are only doomed if we allow it.”  
  
Eunhyuk tried to pull his wrist free, but SungGyu held on firmly. “No,” SungGyu persisted. “You have to put those negative thoughts out of your head…they have no place here.”  
  
Eunhyuk pleaded with the younger man, “How can you say that? You’ve seen the graveyard of bones…there are thousands of skeletons. How can you say we aren’t doomed after seeing that?”  
  
“They were not us!” SungGyu answered resolutely. “I don’t know why they were here…what they were looking for, but we are here to save lives. We have a greater purpose and we won’t fail. We can’t fail.”  
  
Eunhyuk shook his head refusing to be persuaded. “If you thought success was guaranteed…you wouldn’t have built this hole for us to hide in. You are not even sure if you will survive!”  
  
“Ensign Eunhyuk, the mission’s success is not determined by whether I live or die. Don’t get me wrong, because believe me, I have no desire or intention of dying,” SungGyu told him after releasing his wrist. “If I don’t make it out…if I get in trouble in there…hopefully you can succeed where I failed.”  
  
“We will,” Jonghyun vowed, unwillingly moved by the other man’s words.  
  
SungGyu smiled at Jonghyun and confirmed, “You will.”  
  
“But we won’t need to…you will get the force field down,” Jonghyun told SungGyu clinging to his positivity. “I know you will. I have every faith in you…just like Lieutenant SooYoung does and like Commander Jung does. You can do it!”  
  
“I hope so…but if I don’t make it back…tell Doctor Nam—tell him I am really sorry,” SungGyu told Jonghyun as he backed away from them.  
  
Eunhyuk let a loud sigh, feeling the weight of their situation. “You saved his life. What do you have to apologize for? It isn’t like you had a choice.”  
  
SungGyu gave Eunhyuk a confident grin. “Now, that’s what I like to hear.  _We_  saved his life and we are going to get this shield down. We are going to save everyone!”  
  
“And we will be heroes,” Jonghyun added, smiling triumphantly as he watched SungGyu hurry toward the Fortress of Snow.  
  
**************  
  
  
Yunho watched as his blond, blue eyed, very pregnant mate approached the cell with Ryeowook at his side.  
  
“You didn’t know you were bonded to criminal, did you?” Yunho said in an attempt to lighten the mood.  
  
“I am not,” Jaejoong answered firmly. “I am bonded to a man of great honor, loyalty, integrity and decency.”  
  
“You will make me blush.”  
  
Yoochun appeared beside Yunho and declared, “I think it is time for Changmin to be born.”  
  
“That would be really nice,” Kyuhyun agreed.  
  
“Yes, wouldn’t that be great?” Jaejoong replied, irritated. “Nobody wants him to be born more than I do.”  
  
“Can’t you just cut him out?” Yoochun asked, looking to Ryeowook. “What did they used to call it…a caesarian section?  
  
“No!” Ryeowook answered, horrified. “Babies are born when babies are ready to be born. Not when it is convenient for their parents. Even taking a human baby before it is ready to be born can lead to psychological damage and immunological weaknesses.”  
  
Yoochun rolled his eyes. “Yes, I know, but Jaejoong could heal the baby and his telepathic powers could really help us out, right now.”  
  
“They could,” Jaejoong agreed. “But if cutting Changmin out was an option I would have done it days ago.”  
  
“You thought about cutting him out?” Yunho asked with a frown.  
  
“Yunho….don’t; you don’t have to look like this…feel like this.” Jaejoong informed his mate. “You can not possibly understand.”  
  
“You are beautiful—”  
  
“Stop,” Jaejoong commanded, interrupting Yunho. “I swear if you tell me I am beautiful in this condition one more time…”  
  
Yoochun gave Yunho annoyed look and impatiently asked, “Can we get back to the subject at hand? We are prisoners! I’d help Jaejoong cut Changmin out at this point.”  
  
“But sadly, even if it was a possibility it would not solve our immediate problem,” Jaejoong explained.  
  
“It wouldn’t?” Yunho asked.  
  
“No, once Changmin is born I will immediately start shifting back to my prior form.”  
  
Yunho was unable to hide his alarm. “What do you mean? Will it take days like before? You were in so much pain.”  
  
“No,” Jaejoong answered, shaking his head. “I will be evolving into a lesser being…a human. It will not take as long.”  
  
“A lesser being?” Ryeowook questioned. “You still have telepathy and all your other abilities in your human form.”  
  
“Yes, but I am still not in my highly evolved Joong form.”  
  
Kyuhyun fought to keep from grinning when he said in a deadpan voice, “I think we all have just been insulted.”  
  
Yoochun nodded his head. “I am sure of it.”  
  
Yunho ignored the insult and asked, “Jaejoong, you once told Changmin and I there were rogue Joongs.”  
  
“I did.”  
  
“Is it possible for Joongs…to take over humans?” Yunho asked. “To control them?”  
  
“Yunho, surely you know I can make a human do whatever I want.”  
  
“That isn’t what I am asking. I am asking…can a Joong consciousness inhabit a human body and control them?”  
  
A look of fear appeared on Jaejoong’s face. “There were occasions…in the past…yes.”  
  
“Why are you asking that,” Ryeowook demanded, feeling a chill run up his spine.  
  
“Shindong was locked away because he questioned Captain Leeteuk on why the ship kept visiting planets known for holding ancient Joong artifacts,” Kyuhyun explained, understanding immediately what Yunho was hinting at.  
  
Yoochun backed up against the wall of the cell. “Is it possible? It would explain a lot. They do seem off. Commander Ji-Hoon used to be a pretty decent guy.”  
  
“But Heechul is still Heechul,” Ryeowook maintained.  
  
“No,” Yunho said with conviction. “He is not.”  
  
Ryeowook shook his head, disagreeing. “I know you are not happy with him, but I have worked closely with him for years. True, at times he seems off…but I have seen the Heechul we have always known and loved.”  
  
Yoochun disagreed, “Doctor Cho, I am going to have to side with Yunho. Heechul has not been the same since he came back…not even close.”  
  
“If it is…” Jaejoong paused and stated with certainty, “It is true. I have felt…a strong dislike for them since they returned to their mental facilities, but I thought it had to do with Leeteuk usurping command from Yunho and the other two supporting him.”  
  
“So the bastard hasn’t been eavesdropping on us with the ship…they are telepathic. That’s just great!” Yoochun declared. “We are so screwed.”  
  
“No,” Jaejoong insisted. “The human bodies they inhabit are not capable of telepathy.”  
  
“But it is believed that some humans will have the capacity for telepathy in the future,” Ryeowook corrected. “Some humans are born with empathic abilities.”  
  
“Not like a Joong though,” Jaejoong insisted.  
  
“The Guardian will transport Earth humans…” Yunho stated and he suddenly paled as a horrible thought occurred to him, but he chose to keep it to himself.  
  
“Yes, but I have never met an Earth Human…that wasn’t my biological son that was telepathic or even remotely so,” Jaejoong maintained.  
  
“Really? How many times have you told me I was special? Didn’t the gateway open quickly between us?” Yunho questioned.  
  
“We have a timeless love,” Jaejoong insisted.  
  
“Or maybe it has something to do with my earthling brain,” Yunho maintained.  
  
 _“This brain is highly evolved compared to the others on this ship,_ ” Ryeowook repeated, horrified as he realized the truth. “That’s what Heechul said today…he was talking about himself. I found it odd…but it was Heechul, who is always a little odd…so I didn’t think too much of it.”  
  
“Heechul…Heechul was anything but ordinary,” Kyuhyun added. “Even demented he could see right through people.”  
  
Jaejoong reluctantly agreed, “He was very complex…for a  _human_.”


	5. Chapter 5

“I am fearful of what might happen if this continues,” Sungmin announced as he entered the transporter room. “Everybody is growing restless.”  
  
Donghae, who was standing behind the transporter controls working, looked up at the security chief. “Has he not released them?”  
  
“No,” Sungmin answered as he came to stand on the opposite side of the controls, facing Donghae.  
  
“He hasn’t sent the rescue team to the planet yet either…has he?”  
  
Sungmin shook his head.  
  
Donghae looked truly mystified. “Why not?”  
  
“I don’t know…he had his reasons,” Sungmin insisted. “But I can feel the crew’s distrust increasing by the minute. Once Jaejoong announced that Yunho was in the brig…it was like half the crew was ready to mutiny and the other half were considering it. I need to have patrols in the corridors constantly, but…”  
  
“But what?”  
  
“A lot of the security officers are young and inexperienced, but I can feel their faith in me slipping away. They keep muttered about Federation laws being broken. Plus, they are worried about the other four security guards that are down on the planet.”  
  
“I can’t begrudge them for being worried about their comrades.”  
  
“No…and Kangin…”  
  
“What about Kangin?”  
  
“Most of security looks up to him…he’s really popular.”  
  
Donghae nodded his head. “I can understand that…I looked up to him at the academy.”  
  
“We all did,” Sungmin responded. “If Yoochun was Yunho’s right hand man, then Kangin was his left. People are talking more and more.”  
  
“What else are people saying?”  
  
“People are saying it was a fool’s mission.”  
  
Donghae leaned against the transporter console and regretfully told the chief of security, “Sungmin…they aren’t wrong.”  
  
Sungmin took immediate offense. “So you are against him too?”  
  
“No!” Donghae immediately replied. “I owe so much to Captain Leeteuk. You know he saved my life when I was just a green ensign fresh out of the academy…but Yunho and I have been friends for a long time. Yunho is a good man.”  
  
“They both are.”  
  
Donghae looked doubtful as he asked, “But are they both good captains?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
The doors to the transporter room whooshed open and an extremely agitated looking Ensign Junsu entered. “Donghae, did you really transport them to brig? Did you really do that?”  
  
Both of the lieutenants focused their attention on their angry friend.  
  
“I did,” Donghae answered honestly.  
  
“Why?” Junsu demanded. “Everybody on this ship knows Yunho is in the brig…but nobody knows why! Can you tell me why?”  
  
Donghae shook his head.  
  
Junsu turned his attention on Sungmin. “So would you hold any innocent man in the brig if the captain orders it?”  
  
“If he orders it,” Sungmin truthfully replied.  
  
“Really?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“Even if they are innocent?”  
  
“They are not innocent.”  
  
“I don’t believe that,” Junsu told him. “I don’t believe that for one minute. Nobody else on this ship is going to believe it either. Tell me what terrible crimes they have committed.”  
  
“Mutiny!” Sungmin shouted at the other man, unable to restrain himself any longer. “The captain has been gracious in not accusing Yunho publically, but that is why he, Commander Cho and Commander Yoochun are in the brig. Are you happy now?”  
  
Junsu gave Sungmin a look of utter disbelief. “No, I am not. It’s a lie! If Yunho had led a mutiny he would have succeeded and he would be in command right now.”  
  
“He never got the chance,” Sungmin informed his old friend. “He never got to put his plan into effect.”  
  
“Did he actually have a plan?” Donghae asked curiously.  
  
Sungmin shook his head. “No…it was just talk.”  
  
“So Yoochun was right, you have been eavesdropping on everybody,” Junsu told the chief of security while shaking his head in disgust.  
  
Sungmin looked down at the floor. “Yes.”  
  
A surprised Donghae asked, “Yunho was actually planning to take over the ship?”  
  
The security chief swallowed nervously and shook his head. “No, he never planned anything…but the talk…the talk was the reason for the concern.”  
  
“You put Yunho in the brig…because of talk…not for mutinous plans…not for action taken…but for talk?” Junsu asked, not bothering to hide his disapproval. “Was this talk done in the privacy of their own quarters?”  
  
Sungmin kept looking at the floor. “Yes…I was following orders.”  
  
Junsu rubbed his face and declared, “Even ancient humans knew the importance of freedom of speech and the right to privacy!”  
  
“Sungmin…how could you?” Donghae asked accusingly.  
  
Sungmin looked up to glare at Donghae. “Me? You are the one that transported them to the brig.”  
  
“Only so nobody else would attempt it! I did it so they wouldn’t end up in a bulkhead,” Donghae said in his defense. “I did it so they would be safe!”  
  
“I thought you supported the captain,” Sungmin said, questioning Donghae’s loyalty.  
  
“I do. I support him…but something crazy is going on. Something isn’t right,” Donghae tried to explain to Sungmin and then he looked at Junsu. “And then there is Eunhyuk.”  
  
“Eunhyuk?” Sungmin questioned, confused.  
  
“You remember him don’t you, Sungmin,” Junsu snapped, his anger growing by leaps and bounds. “He’s your oldest friend. He’s trapped on the planet below…with no rescue in sight. I realize he isn’t as handsome as your prince or as shitty to you as Commander Cho was, so it is understandable if you have forgotten about him. I wouldn’t expect you to be concerned about his wellbeing.”  
  
“Junsu!” Sungmin exclaimed, taken aback by the ensign’s sudden outburst.  
  
“He…he has always been a good friend to you. He’s always worried about you…and you…you support Captain Leeteuk blindly…when Leeteuk will be the death of Eunhyuk!” Junsu yelled back at Sungmin with tears streaming down his face. “Now, you have betrayed Yunho  _and_  Eunhyuk; congratulations!”  
  
“I ha…haven’t…” Sungmin stuttered, shaking his head, but the look of disappointment Yunho had given him still played on repeat in his mind. “I was following orders.”  
  
“Dumb orders!” Junsu proclaimed. “Dumb…law breaking orders. They weren’t Federation or Star Fleet orders!”  
  
“I don’t have to listen to th—”  
  
Sungmin was interrupted by Leeteuk’s voice as it emerged from Donghae’s combadge, “Lieutenant Donghae, report immediately to the docking bay.”  
  
Donghae stared only for a moment at the two friends that were close to coming to blows before he hurried out of the transporter room, on his way to the docking bay.  
  
Junsu looked at the extremely irritated security chief and accused, “What? What are you going to do? Are you going to arrest me?”  
  
“I might!”  
  
  
********************  
  
  
“So do we really think…that Commander Leeteuk has been taken over by a crazy Joong?” Commander Yoochun asked.  
  
Commander Kyuhyun, who was sitting beside Commander Yoochun on the floor reasoned, “We can’t be sure of anything.”  
  
Yunho, who was still standing and staring through the force field at the empty security department, stated, “I strongly suspect all three of them are being controlled by outside forces.”  
  
“You did keep saying Heechul was off,” Yoochun stated, wistfully. “Makes sense now. I wish we had acted sooner.”  
  
“Also, Commander Ji-Hoon seems way off to me,” Kyuhyun added. “He didn’t used to be so…”  
  
“Stupid,” Commander Yoochun finished for Kyuhyun.  
  
“Yeah,” Commander Cho agreed. “It’s like he spaces out at times.”  
  
Yunho pointed out, “He is the oldest of the three of them and was by far the one most damaged by the anomaly.”  
  
“Ryeowook kept saying he couldn’t explain why they were better,” Commander Cho reminded them.  
  
“It’s because they never were better, they were just being controlled,” Yunho added and turned around to look down at the two commanders sitting on the floor. “But why take over those three? Why not take us over? Why take over three people with severe brain damage?”  
  
Kyuhyun shrugged and replied, “Maybe because they have no real connections on the ship. Jaejoong would know if you weren’t you…you would know if Yoochun wasn’t himself, and Ryeowook would know if I was different.”  
  
“No,” Yunho disagreed. “I think there has to be a different reason.”  
  
“Maybe they can’t control an undamaged mind?” Yoochun suggested. “Maybe a healthy mind could fight them off.”  
  
“That is actually a comforting thought—we just went into warp,” Yunho declared as he felt the very subtle shift in the ship that few could detect.  
  
Yoochun was immediately up and on high alert, also detecting the jump to warp speed. The chief engineer placed his hands against the walls of the brig, feeling for the subtle vibrations that being in warp caused and complained loudly, “Not just warp, but a high speed warp!”  
  
“Does that mean they rescued the away team?” Kyuhyun asked as he stood up.  
  
“I highly doubt it,” Yunho answered, looking more displeased by the second as he looked through the force field and noticed someone watching them quietly. “Not with the inexperienced away team you were sending after them.”  
  
“You?” Yoochun questioned as he spun around and noticed that Leeteuk had entered the security department.  
  
Leeteuk’s eyes were locked on Yunho as he stated coolly, “You of so little faith.”  
  
“They needed to be protected and taught…not thrown to the wolves before they were ready.”  
  
“But the Jex aren’t wolves…they are merely flying bugs,” Leeteuk replied as he stepped closer to the force field. “Bugs with a dangerous bite, I will concede.”  
  
“Did you abandon the away teams on the planet?” Yunho asked in a clipped tone.  
  
Leeteuk nodded his head.  
  
Yunho tensed and demanded, “Why?”  
  
“Because another emergency demanded my immediate attention, but you will be happy to know that I followed your advice and sent another…more experienced away team to rescue them.”  
  
“You did?” Yunho asked, unable to hide his surprise, “Who?”  
  
“I sent Lieutenants SooYoung and Donghae and Ensign Henry. They went by shuttle… _and I know_  that will make you happy.”  
  
“Then who the fuck is running engineering?” Yoochun demanded. “I am in here. Ensign SungGyu is probably dead! Ensign Henry…is my…he’s mine! He should not have been sent off this ship! He’s an engineering genius that belongs in engineering!”  
  
“That is exactly why I sent him…he should have that force field figured out in no time,” an amused Leeteuk explained. “He’s a prodigy, after all.”  
  
Yoochun glared at Leeteuk. “You didn’t answer my question. Who is running engineering?”  
  
Leeteuk took a step back from the force field. “Why Commander Yoochun, that glare of yours is quite lethal.”  
  
“You have no idea!” Yoochun threatened.  
  
“Don’t be so dramatic. Engineering is in good hands—Commander Ji-Hoon has temporary control of it.”  
  
Commander Yoochun turned deathly pale. “ _You_ have that idiot in charge of engineering! You are taxing my engines at high warp and you have that idiot in charge! Are you mad? Or are you just suicidal?”  
  
Captain Leeteuk shook his head. “Now Commander, that is not very nice. Starships are supposed to go fast…that is why we have warp engines.”  
  
“You crazy fuc—”  
  
“Commander Yoochun, stop,” Yunho ordered, interrupting his friend.  
  
“Where are we going in such a hurry?” Commander Cho said, asking the obvious question.  
  
“Oh, there is a guardian acting badly,” Leeteuk responded. “We are off to save the day.”  
  
Yunho frowned. “A Guardian of Time is acting badly? What do you mean by that?”  
  
“It’s sending out time ripples through space…it’s demanding a Joong. Kinda like it did that time on Eternity…you remember that time, right?”  
  
Yunho stared down at Leeteuk. “We are nowhere near Eternity.”  
  
“Oh, it’s a different Guardian,” Leeteuk answered. “You know, there seems to be quite a few guardians in this region of space, and didn’t I read they are all connected? I think I read that in some report of yours.”  
  
“And it is asking for a Joong?” Yunho clarified.  
  
“Yes, so we are hurrying on our way so your Jaejoong can talk some sense into it.”  
  
Yunho pressed closer to the force field. “You are going to send Jaejoong down to the planet?”  
  
“Commander Jung, you are not looking very friendly towards me,” Leeteuk told him, taking another step back. “You and Commander Yoochun should really work on your tempers.”  
  
“Jaejoong is not leaving this ship without me,” Yunho announced, glaring at Leeteuk. “He could give birth at any moment!”  
  
“Yes, I know. What a happy day it will be when the baby is born,” Leeteuk told Yunho. “And of course you will be accompanying Jaejoong to visit the guardian. I wouldn’t dream of separating you two.”  
  
A suspicious Kyuhyun asked, “You are sending a prisoner down on an away team? Isn’t that against Star Fleet regulations?”  
  
“Like he gives a shit about Star Fleet regulations,” Yoochun grumbled.  
  
Leeteuk flung his hands up and proclaimed in a voice full of embarrassment, “Oh, your arrest was nothing but a terrible misunderstanding. You three haven’t committed any crime. It was just harmless talk; there was no mutiny attempt.”  
  
“That’s right!” Commander Yoochun quickly agreed. “Now, let me out of here so I can go to engineering.”  
  
“Oh, I couldn’t do that,” Leeteuk replied. “Let’s follow the proper channels this time. Lieutenant Sungmin should let you out but…you know what, we should be at the planet by then. We could just beam you all down to the planet directly from here.”  
  
“We are all going to the planet?” Yunho asked, but he already knew the answer.  
  
Leeteuk lowered his hands and smiled at the men locked in the brig as he backed away. “Yes all three of you...plus Jaejoong, Dr. Cho, Shindong and that perky Ensign Junsu, who is so loyal to you, Commander Jung. It will be one big, happy reunion.”  
  
“We are so dead,” Commander Yoochun whispered as Leeteuk walked away, “so dead.”  
  
  
  
***********************  
  
  
  
They watched as a black cloud made up of Jex rose up into the sky and collided with the shield. Massive swarms of Jex veered off from each other. Some continued to ram the invisible shield in the sky, hoping to escape to their breeding grounds. Other swarms appeared almost angry as they descended toward the land below them.  
  
From the safety of the small cave Ensign SungGyu had made them Jonghyun and Eunhyuk watched, both amazed and terrified.  
  
“At least they are ignoring us,” Jonghyun stated too loudly, his nerves showing as he clutched his phaser.  
  
“For now,” Eunhyuk told him as he watched some of the Jex descending downwards. “There are so many of them…I didn’t see any structures on this planet sturdy enough to keep them out. The people live in huts…huts can’t keep them out.”  
  
“No, the only thing that could withstand them is the fortress.”  
  
“But whatever is inside the fortress also kills…maybe there are Jex inside it,” Eunhyuk said, thinking aloud. “How long as he been gone?”  
  
“Almost an hour,” Jonghyun answered. “I wish I was on the Expectations. I wish I was in the transporter room…transporting everybody away from the Jex.”  
  
Eunhyuk gave the other man a sad smile. “Me too.”  
  
Jonghyun rubbed his face against the crook of his arm. “The away team…I hope they are hiding.”  
  
“They have phasers.”  
  
“I don’t see any phaser fire though…if they were shooting up at the sky wouldn’t we see it?”  
  
Eunhyuk stepped up closer to the cave’s entrance and looked down at the land below them. “The Jex seem to be flying above the tree line for now.”  
  
“The ones we can see. It only took one bite to paralyze Doctor Nam.”  
  
“I know.”  
  
“Do you think…”  
  
“Do I think what?”  
  
“That is it time for us to go in there…shouldn’t SungGyu be back by now?”  
  
Eunhyuk nodded his head, forcing his fear under control. He knew what he had to do. If SungGyu had died trying to solve the puzzle…then they had to try their best to finish the mission. “We can’t wait here any longer…we need to see if he needs our help.”  
  
“Okay,” Jonghyun agreed, clutching his phaser tighter.  
  
“We will just stay close to each other,” Eunhyuk said, trying to sound commanding as he mastered his fear and tried to stop his knees from shaking.  
  
The younger man eagerly nodded his head.  
  
Eunhyuk motioned toward the outside. “Stay close. We have to keep our eyes open for…” Eunhyuk paused as he noticed the sky turn golden, signaling the collapse of the shield.  
  
“Is that the…the…shield!” Jonghyun gasped loudly. “The shield; it went down! Didn’t it?”  
  
“I think so…” Eunhyuk answered, while they both watched the golden sky slowly fade away.  
  
“Is it down…is it down?”  
  
Eunhyuk looked down across the landscape. “I don’t know…we can’t tell.”  
  
“Look! Look!” Jonghyun shouted as he pointed toward the Jex. They had gathered together once again as they were ascending towards the sky.  
  
Eunhyuk exhaled a deep breath as he watched the Jex fly past the point of the shield. “He did it! He really did it,” Eunhyuk whispered softly as a great weight was lifted from him.  
  
“He did!” Jonghyun cried out as he hugged Eunhyuk tightly.  
  
Eunhyuk hugged Jonghyun back. “He did.”  
  
Jonghyun let go of Eunhyuk and rushed toward the fortress. “We have to find him.”  
  
Eunhyuk gave one last upward glance toward the departing Jex and then raced after Jonghyun to find Ensign SungGyu. “Junsu is going to love this.”  
  
“Why wouldn’t he? Isn’t he your best friend?” Jonghyun asked as they headed toward the fortress. “Won’t he be happy you’re alive?”  
  
“Yeah, he will be glad I am alive. He just sometimes gets mad at me because occasionally I can be…an idiot,” Eunhyuk answered, not saying more.  
  
They hurried through the graveyard of bones, unafraid as they searched for their missing companion. They were quickly rewarded when they caught sight of SungGyu exiting the enormous doors that were guarding the entrance to the Fortress of Snow.  
  
Both of them raced toward the other ensign, unable to hide their excitement.  
  
The exhausted SungGyu grinned in relief as he saw the other two quickly approaching. He promptly sat down among the bones before he collapsed.  
  
Eunhyuk was the first to reach him and he stared down at bedraggled ensign, who was trying to catch his breath. “Are you…are you okay?”  
  
SungGyu’s voice was shaky as he answered, “Yeah...”  
  
Jonghyun stopped himself from reaching down and hugging the other man, who was visibly shaken. “What happened in there?”  
  
SungGyu didn’t answer immediately; he just tried to control his racing heart.  
  
Eunhyuk’s concern grew. “Are you sure you are okay?”  
  
“Yeah, I think…there was a big…a huge spider in there,” SungGyu declared, still trying to calm his nerves. “It was talking to me… _talking to me_. It told me if I didn’t answer the riddle correctly it was going to eat me and then spit my bones out here. It must have been telepathic…because its mouth wasn’t moving. It was blocking the path to the power source…it wouldn’t let me pass.”  
  
“So it did make you answer a riddle,” Eunhyuk stated, surprised as he looked out at the graveyard. “So all these people got the riddle wrong?”  
  
“I don’t now,” SungGyu answered with his eyes tightly shut. “It was like I was in the middle of a Tolkien novel.”  
  
“You must have got the riddle right,” Jonghyun told SungGyu encouragingly as he reached down and squeezed the shaken ensign’s shoulder.  
  
“No,” SungGyu answered, opening his eyes. “I didn’t get it right. I got it wrong.”  
  
“But you…the shield is down…and you are alive,” Eunhyuk pointed out, casting a concerned glance at Jonghyun.  
  
“Only because I shot it,” SungGyu informed them, shaking his head still dazed by what had happened. “The thing wouldn’t die. I had the phaser set to kill and I bet I shot it a hundred times before it died. It just kept coming for me. If I never see another spider as long as I live…it will be fine by me.”  
  
Eunhyuk and Jonghyun both grinned but were beamed away from the planet before they had time to reply.  
  
  
****************************  
  
  
“How can you eat at a time like this?” Ryeowook demanded as Jaejoong slurped down a bowl of soup.  
  
Jaejoong set the empty bowl down loudly against his kitchen countertop. “Why? How can you ask me that! You know why! Changmin is demanding it. If I don’t feed him he takes turns kicking different internal organs until I do.”  
  
Ryeowook winced at the thought. “Jaejoong, that isn’t exactly true.”  
  
“Shut up! I am not a cow.”  
  
“I didn’t say you were…it’s just that Changmin really loved food…and you are tightly bonded with him right now.”  
  
Jaejoong grabbed a loaf of bread, tore off a piece, and stuffed it into his mouth. “I am stressed, too.”  
  
Ryeowook reached across the counter and also tore off a piece of bread. “Tell me about it. I used to eat all the time. I was once really cubby.”  
  
“Because you were stressed?”  
  
“No, not really…my grandmother is an excellent cook.”  
  
“I want to meet your grandmother…right after we get our respective mates out of jail,” Jaejoong said, pulling the bread protectively out of Ryeowook’s reach.  
  
Ryeowook shook his head at the greedy Joong and turned around to face the door. “Captain Leeteuk said he was going to release them…why hasn’t he?”  
  
“Because he isn’t Leeteuk…”  
  
“We need to get control of this ship back to Yunho…evil imposters can not have control of the Expectations.”  
  
“I totally agree; do you have any suggestions?  
  
Ryeowook let out a deep breath and stated, “Since we are forbidden from returning to the brig…I think we should talk to Sungmin.”  
  
Jaejoong sneered at Ryeowook’s plan and set the bread down on the counter. “Your friend Sungmin is, like, Leeteuk’s favorite pet. He will be no help to us.”  
  
“Maybe not,” Ryeowook agreed, heading toward the door. “But I still want to give him a piece of my mind.”  
  
Jaejoong grabbed the loaf of bread and followed after Ryeowook. “If nothing else, this should prove to be amusing to watch.”  
  
“Not for him—” Ryeowook never finished his sentence as he was transported away with Jaejoong.  
  
  
********************  
  
  
Eunhyuk, Jonghyun, and SungGyu materialized inside a shuttle craft and were right away greeted by Lieutenant SooYoung, “Hey, you fellows need a ride?”  
  
“Did you get the others?” SungGyu blurted out, instantly gathering his wits.  
  
“Yes,” she answered, giving him a scrutinizing look. “You look like you have been through hell.”  
  
“Are they  _all_  alive?” SungGyu asked urgently as he looked past her to the front of the shuttle where he saw Ensign Henry piloting the shuttle and Lieutenant Donghae sitting next to him working steadily at the control panel.  
  
“All of them,” SooYoung replied. “Lieutenant Donghae has them stored in the shuttle’s transporter beams at this time. Some of them are injured but nothing the Expectations can’t fix once it gets here.”  
  
“Once it gets here…” Eunhyuk repeated, unable to hide his surprise. “Where is the ship?”  
  
“They answered a distress call and left us here to rescue you, but of course we couldn’t do anything with the shield being up,” SooYoung told them.  
  
Jonghyun wrapped an arm around SungGyu’s waist and said proudly, “Luckily Ensign SungGyu saved us.”  
  
SungGyu shrugged free of Jonghyun’s hold and corrected, “It was a team effort.”  
  
Eunhyuk snorted. “Yeah, but you were the team leader. We did what you said and we got to live…and I for one am totally okay with that.”  
  
SungGyu sighed and repeated, “It was a team effort.”  
  
“You are the one that faced the giant spider,” Jonghyun reminded SungGyu with a grin.  
  
SungGyu cringed involuntarily. “Don’t….don’t…mention spiders…ever.”  
  
Lieutenant SooYoung beamed at SungGyu. “I won’t ask…for now. I told Minho to stay with you…he should have listened to me.”  
  
“He tried,” Eunhyuk answered. “Lieutenant Yesung wouldn’t part with him…so did the Jex get them?”  
  
“We haven’t examined any of them, but some of their life signs did show signs of the Jex toxin, along with Doctor Nam…who is also hypothermic.”  
  
Eunhyuk grimaced. “We are kinda responsible for the hypothermia.”  
  
“Freezing him was the only way of saving,” Jonghyun promptly explained.  
  
“I am sure he will be fine,” SooYoung assured them.  
  
“What about the people in the surrounding villages?” SungGyu asked. “How did the native people fair?”  
  
“That is the strange part…they seemed to all have taken cover, but the away team was out in the open,” the science officer explained.  
  
SungGyu frowned.  
  
“I don’t think the Jex descended on the villages,” Eunhyuk added. “They seemed to be staying above the tree line.”  
  
“The majority must have,” SooYoung agreed.  
  
“Eunhyuk, come talk to me, I can’t leave the transporter controls,” Donghae called from the front of the shuttle.  
  
“I will be right there,” Eunhyuk told his old friend as he hurried to the front of the shuttle.  
  
“Oh, I want to come too,” the young transporter tech declared as he followed after Eunhyuk. “I want to see how you are stabilizing their forms with the limited power of the shuttle.”  
  
“Well, actually we have Ensign Henry to thank for that…I think he could funnel energy from a dead engine,” Donghae explained.  
  
Lieutenant SooYoung watched as Jonghyun and Eunhyuk joined Donghae and Henry at the front of the shuttle. She then leaned into SungGyu and warned, “Commander Jung was arrested along with Commander Yoochun and Commander Cho.”  
  
A stunned SungGyu asked, “Why?”  
  
“Nobody knows,” SooYoung whispered. “Jaejoong came to the bridge and let Captain Leeteuk have it…then the captain said it was all some horrible misunderstanding.”  
  
“So he released them?”  
  
“He said he was going to, but I wasn’t around to see if he actually did it.”  
  
“When will the Expectations be back?” SungGyu asked, growing more and more concerned.  
  
“They are traveling at a high warp, it shouldn’t be long.”  
  
“How high a warp?”  
  
SooYoung let out a small laugh. “Warp eight.”  
  
“Warp eight!” SungGyu gasped. “Commander Yoochun will have a stroke.”  
  
She nodded her head and agreed, “My thoughts exactly.”  
  
***************************  
  
  
Ryeowook found himself on an unknown planet and standing in front of a stone monument with a blue liquid-looking interior that was swirling around in circles. “Where are we…and is that…is that…”  
  
“A Guardian…” Jaejoong answered as he looked at the great portal, still gripping his bread from earlier. “But your transporters brought us here, not the Guardian.”  
  
“Why are we here,” Ryeowook asked, eyeing the Guardian uneasily.  
  
“For no good reason, you can be sure of that,” Yoochun answered as he, Yunho and Kyuhyun appeared behind them.  
  
“Jaejoong!” Yunho exclaimed and rushed to his mate’s side, barely managing not to fall on the slick surface of the planet. “The being controlling Leeteuk is up to something.”  
  
Jaejoong took Yunho by the hand and agreed, “I concur.”  
  
“He’s up to nothing good, you can be sure of that,” Kyuhyun added.  
  
“I don’t recognize this planet,” Jaejoong stated as he looked up at the sky and was relieved to find five small moons, not two.  
  
Kyuhyun grabbed a hold of Yoochun’s arm after losing his footing. “Be careful, the ground is a gel-like substance.”  
  
“Yeah,” Yunho agreed as he examined his surroundings. “It’s slick.”  
  
“It’s also hot,” Jaejoong complained, wiping his brow.  
  
Ryeowook rubbed his arms. “I don’t think we should be out here in this sun…it doesn’t feel right.”  
  
“I honestly didn’t think there was a Guardian…I thought he was just going to kill us,” Yoochun replied, staring at the ancient portal anxiously.  
  
“I am rather shocked,” Yunho admitted. “I didn’t think he would send us to a Guardian…why would he do that?”  
  
“What the hell is going on,” Jaejoong demanded, quickly deducing the three commanders knew something he did not. “I can’t read minds, people! Somebody tell me what is going on.”  
  
Yunho squeezed Jaejoong’s hand and explained, “The imposter posing as Leeteuk stated there was a guardian disrupting space and time and he was going to send us down to deal with it?”  
  
“And needless to say we are kinda surprised he wasn’t lying,” Yoochun elaborated as he bowed before the Guardian. “I just want to apologize for kicking you that time. I am really, really sorry.”  
  
“Yoochun,” Yunho chastised, while shaking his head.  
  
“What?” Yoochun complained. “It’s all swirly looking; I can just imagine all the places it would like to send me.”  
  
Ryeowook eyed the portal, while holding up his hand to block the sunlight from his face. “Doesn’t it swirl before it swallows people up?”  
  
“It does not swallow people,” Jaejoong protested and looked at Yunho. “Are you no longer under arrest?”  
  
“No,” Kyuhyun answered for Yunho. “He said we were free, but instead of freeing us he left us in the brig until we were transported here.”  
  
Yoochun carefully walked around the monument and stated, “Wherever we are, it doesn’t take long to get here at a high warp…not that it takes long to get to most places at a high warp.”  
  
“We were at a high warp?” Ryeowook asked, shocked. “Why so fast?”  
  
“He wanted to quickly get rid of us for some reason,” Yunho answered, putting his focus back on Jaejoong. “Could the Guardian send us back in time…to the point before the imposter took control of Leeteuk, Ji-Hoon, and Heechul?”  
  
“It can do whatever it wants…but it has to want to do it. We haven’t even greeted it.”  
  
“Hey, I greeted it!” Yoochun proclaimed, defensively.  
  
“I was talking about me and Yunho…it doesn’t even acknowledge your existence,” Jaejoong informed the engineer.  
  
“Well, it hasn’t exactly acknowledged you either, Your Royal Highness,” Yoochun smart-mouthed back at the Joong. “Maybe—”  
  
“Junsu!” Ryeowook exclaimed loudly as the ensign materialized. “What are you doing here?”  
  
“Being punished…for his loyalty,” Kyuhyun responded, taking a step closer to Ryeowook. “But where is Shindong? Shindong is supposed to be here also. Leeteuk clearly stated Shindong would be joining us.”  
  
Yoochun eyed Junsu warily and explained, “They probably haven’t sent him yet. Who the hell is running the transporters? Donghae and Jonghyun are both off the ship. We are lucky we didn’t find ourselves encased in rock. If he put that fucktard Ji-Hoon in charge of engineering he probably has a housekeeping bot running the transporters.”  
  
“Junsu, you have a phaser and tricorder?” Yunho questioned, examining the ensign closely.  
  
“Yes, Sir,” Junsu answered, eyeing the Guardian uneasily. “I was told I was going on a rescue mission.”  
  
“What kind of rescue mission?” Yunho asked, relinquishing Jaejoong’s hand and carefully walking closer to Junsu.  
  
Junsu, whose attention was on the ancient portal asked, “Is that a Guardian of Time?”  
  
“Ensign, what kind of rescue mission?” Yunho repeated.  
  
Junsu forced his eyes away from the Guardian and pointed to the sky. “That star is about to explode…I was told we were a rescue party for a small rebel instillation that had sent out distress calls. But I don’t see any installation here.”  
  
Yunho jerked his attention toward the small yellow star in the sky. “About to explode; give me the tricorder,” Yunho commanded, yanking the tricorder out of Junsu’s hands.  
  
Kyuhyun immediately hit his combadge to call for the ship, but the connection was dead.  
  
“Yunho!” Yoochun yelled. “How long do we have?”  
  
“Seconds, not even—”  
  
  
***************************  
  
  
The Expectations had met up with the shuttle and Lieutenant Donghae had safely transported the injured away team members directly to sickbay. The Expectations had then locked its tractor beams on the shuttle and brought it into the docking bay safely. The shuttle crew had patiently waited as the docking bay pressurized, filling the bay with a breathable atmosphere.  
  
After the docking bay crew had signaled it was safe to exit the away team quickly departed the shuttle. They found the usually cheerful docking bay crew unusually quiet. Lieutenant SooYoung narrowed her gaze and asked Lieutenant Donghae, “Is it just me or does it seem unusually somber in here?”  
  
Donghae nodded his head in agreement. “They act like somebody died.”  
  
Ensign SungGyu, who had been exiting the bay with them, froze in place after hearing Lieutenant Donghae’s words.  
  
“Are you alright?” a concerned ensign Jonghyun asked after watching Ensign SungGyu come to an abrupt stop.  
  
SungGyu inhaled a deep breath and rushed off, leaving the others behind as a terrible fear took root in his heart.  
  
Jonghyun and Eunhyuk shared a quick glance, immediately knowing what the other ensign feared, and took off after him.  
  
Ensign Henry, who worked closely with Ensign SungGyu in engineering, asked, “Dr. Nam…how injured was he?”  
  
Donghae watched as the three men hurried away. “He was in the worst condition by far, but I would have thought it would be quick work for Dr. Heechul to heal him.”  
  
*************  
  
SungGyu hurried toward sickbay, stopping for no one, but not missing the looks of loss and distress that appeared on the face of every crew member he passed. He mentally reviewed the process leading to this moment. WooHyun had been beamed aboard the ship seventeen minutes earlier…seventeen minutes was a long time in space…even sixty seconds was an eternity in space. Space could be a cruel mistress, and SungGyu knew this.  
  
He sprinted through the sickbay waiting room, paying little attention to the other crew members that were gathered there. He burst into the exam area and did not dare to breathe till he locked eyes on WooHyun. A very alive WooHyun, who sat on the edge of his exam bed with a red blanket wrapped around him.  
  
Without a second thought he dashed to the young doctor and pulled him into a tight embrace. SungGyu let his relief wash over him, and the fear that he had failed his friend slowly dissipated.  
  
“Thank the universe!” Eunhyuk exclaimed from behind SungGyu. “There for a minute I thought you were goner, Dr. Nam.”  
  
“Me too,” Ensign Jonghyun, who stood beside Eunhyuk, agreed. “I am so glad to see you alive…and not a human popsicle.”  
  
WooHyun, who felt very snug in SungGyu’s embrace, smiled over the ensign’s shoulder at the two other men he had shared the adventure with. “I am getting warmer by the second.”  
  
Jonghyun caught sight of a somber looking Minho. “Minho, I glad to see you! For awhile there I thought you all were goners.”  
  
Minho looked at Jonghyun and tried to give him a small reassuring smile, but his eyes held only sadness.  
  
Jonghyun, who knew his friend well, stepped closer and beseeched, “What is wrong. You look—”  
  
Kangin’s loud voice filled sickbay interrupting Jonghyun, “I am not fine! I am far from fine!”  
  
SungGyu broke away from WooHyun to watch as a grief stricken Ensign Kangin stumbled into the room with Doctor Heechul trailing after him.  
  
“Just calm down…please calm down,” Heechul pleaded.  
  
“Calm down? How can I calm down? You can’t tell me…you can’t tell me Yunho and Yoochun are dead and expect me to calm down! It’s a lie! It’s all a lie…a terrible, horrible lie!” Kangin screamed accusingly at the doctor.  
  
“I am so sorry…you don’t know how sorry I am,” the doctor told Kangin, reaching out for the distraught ensign. “It is a tragedy.”  
  
“It…it…isn’t true…NO!” Kangin shouted with tears running down his face. “They aren’t dead…it’s a lie…they aren’t dead.”  
  
“Nobody wants to believe it,” Heechul assured Kangin. “You have to settle down…I can give you something to help calm you.”  
  
“Keep your fucking medicine away from me!” Kangin cried. “They were my friends!”  
  
Heechul nodded his head. “I know they were. They were my friends, too”  
  
“It can’t be true…it can’t be,” Kangin insisted.  
  
“Sadly, it is true,” Leeteuk stated, causing every gaze in the room to shift to him. Nobody had noticed him entering sickbay. “Commander Jung, Commander Cho, Commander Yoochun, Doctor Cho, Ensign Junsu, and Jaejoong are all dead…it’s a horrible truth, but yet it is still the truth.”  
  
The room was filled by silence as Leeteuk’s words penetrated the minds of everyone present.  
  
The silence was broken when Eunhyuk dropped to his knees and let out a pain filled cry after hearing his lifelong friend was dead. “Junsu…no…Junsu...”  
  
Dr. Nam quickly got off the exam bed and engulfed Eunhyuk in a hug.  
  
Kangin leaned against the wall as if his legs could no longer be trusted to hold him up. “It just…it can’t….it is unbelievable…Yunho doesn’t end like this….he doesn’t die like this. No…it’s wrong. It isn’t right. Yoochun is too ornery to die.”  
  
Leeteuk closed his eyes and said in a voice that sounded full of sorrow, “He died doing what he did best…saving others. A most noble life he led.”  
  
“But they can’t be dead…not dead…not so many of them,” Kangin muttered to himself, unable believe such a tragedy had occurred.  
  
“And if not for this young man,” Leeteuk announced turning his attention to SungGyu. “So many more of you would be lost if he had not insisted on taking the hard path…the righteous path to the top of the mountain.”  
  
The rest of the away team looked at SungGyu, still too stunned by the news of so many deaths to completely comprehend what Leeteuk had just told them. Minho and the rest of the away team were speechless, but Lieutenant Yesung swallowed all his pride and told SungGyu, “Thank you.”  
  
“That is very gracious of you, Lieutenant Yesung,” Leeteuk told the leader of the away team as he reached out and rested his hand on SungGyu’s shoulder. “I am just very glad I thought of including Ensign SungGyu on the team…I am horrified to think of what else could have happened if I had not.”  
  
Leeteuk’s words penetrated Kangin’s grief-stricken mind and he gave Leeteuk a look of disbelief, but before Kangin had time to say anything SungGyu quickly replied, “Captain Leeteuk, I can’t thank you enough for your faith in me.”  
  
Kangin stared at the young ensign, who stared back at him unflinchingly. He recognized the lie, but held his tongue when he saw something familiar…something the gaze of a treasured friend had once held. Kangin nodded his head, going along with the lie. “Yes, think goodness…you thought of including him, Captain.”  
  
Leeteuk released his hold on SungGyu and focused on Heechul, who had been strangely quiet. “Doctor, I sympathize with the great loss you have suffered, but I would be appreciative if you could join me for a moment. I would like your suggestions regarding how to best deal with the crew at this time of great tragedy.”  
  
“Of course,” Heechul told him and followed Leeteuk out of sickbay.  
  
Eunhyuk, who was still on the floor, pushed WooHyun away and shook his head frantically. “Junsu can’t be dead. He just can’t be. He can’t be dead. He’s my best friend. He’s been my best friend my whole life…my whole life.”  
  
WooHyun said nothing, knowing there wasn’t anything he could say to make it better.  
  
SungGyu looked around the room in disbelief. He couldn’t wrap his mind around what was going on. He should have known when he got off the shuttle. He let his own worry about WooHyun cloud his judgment. All the crew members had looked shaken to their core…only the death of Yunho could affect so many. Yunho had once saved them all…pulled them out of hell and made them a team once again.  
  
SungGyu’s own sense of loss was immense. Yunho had always showed so much faith in him, and although Commander Yoochun could be difficult, SungGyu admired him. He wanted to know how they had died. It seemed wrong. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but his gut instinct was screaming that something was not right. His sharp mind remembered the ease with which Leeteuk took credit for Yunho’s work.  
  
SungGyu watched as Lieutenant Donghae and SooYoung entered the room. Donghae immediately went to Eunhyuk, knelt down beside the sobbing man and engulfed him in a tight hug.  
  
He watched as WooHyun made his way around the room carefully assessing each crew member, offering comfort.  
  
He watched as Lieutenant SooYoung subtly took Minho by the wrist and led him down a hallway toward the rooms at the back of sickbay.  
  
He instinctively felt compelled to follow after them and he soon found himself in a room with a beautiful young girl, who slept undisturbed. He had never spoken with Sulli before but she was well known throughout the ship.  
  
He watched as the Choi siblings stood at their cousin’s bedside, reading the monitors above her bed that continuously scanned her.  
  
“Is there any change?” he asked.  
  
SooYoung did not answer him as she knelt at her cousin’s bedside and took the sleeping girl’s hand.  
  
Minho answered, “No, none…there hasn’t been any change since she slipped into this…this long sleep.”  
  
WooHyun’s words from earlier repeated in his mind, and SungGyu asked, “Does this mean…that you were wrong?”  
  
SooYoung looked up sharply at SungGyu and shook her head. “No, it just means that her prince has not awakened her, yet.”  
  
SungGyu met SooYoung’s intelligent gaze and he knew for certain she was not speaking out of grief. She was a scientist. He didn’t know how she knew, but he was certain she knew that someday Sulli would awaken.  
  
He also knew that SooYoung had been with Lieutenant Jung that day he had disappeared into time and space. The brilliant Lieutenant Jung, who he still remembered…but how could he remember a man that had never been born? His mind raced with possibilities, but he said nothing, nothing at all. None of them said anything as they watched Sulli sleeping…sleeping and waiting for Changmin to be born and wake her from her long slumber.


End file.
